Babysitting.......and a winner

So here is what I have been up to today, the boys were at school, but when they got home, I got out my 'travelling set' of Promarkers and let them loose. Six year old Max was very impressive, carefully 'keeping inside the lines'. Four year old Milo of course, just wanted to use every colour in the box. Here he is on the phone to Mummy - 'I am very busy mummy, doing colouring with Ma's markers and I got to be very careful cos they are spensive......' 

Here is a new job card I made for this month's Papercraft Inspirations magazine, just going on sale now in the USA - the new magazine will be out next week here in the UK, with some more of my cards in it. I loved doing this one, when I was planning the set, the saying 'big cheese' popped into my head and I just couldn't get rid of it! I had huge problems drawing the 'big cheese', I just couldn't get the angles right at all, but in the end it looked realistic enough for me to make the card and send in my hand drawn wedge to be used as a template for the readers......

the sentiment was printed onto a strip of Safmat (by Letraset), you can hardly see the join!

On to the winner of the Craftwork Cards Jacob pad and paper bows, thanks to everyone who left a comment. The name that random.org picked out of the hat was:

WINZER CASTLE

.......who was the first to comment. It always amazes me when that happens, although statistically each number has an even chance of course. Anyway, congrats, email me and I will get your prize in the mail



Tonight is Chinese New Year, so happy new year to any of you who hail, or originate from that part of the world (yes, I have blog visitors from China and Hong Kong!). I am going to celebrate by making some masks with the children and having a Chinese takeaway which they will love, they can stay up a bit later and hopefully I will get a bit more sleep on Saturday morning, although that is probably wishful thinking. Never mind, I cherish the moment, I can sleep when I get home...

Enjoy the start of the weekend....

Win some Flexmarkers....

Good morning. It's my turn to post over on the Letraset blog again today, and I decided to share some of my tried and tested colour blend combinations......

Go and leave a comment on the Letraset blog, then pop back over here to leave your name. ONLY PEOPLE WHO HAVE COMMENTED ON BOTH SITES WILL BE ENTERED TO WIN.......I will draw a winner next Wednesday and tell you who won on Thursday. As always, I will mail to anywhere in the world

Here's what's up for grabs this week, a set of the vibrant colour Flexmarkers, and one of Letraset's very useful storage wallets which hold 24 markers - thanks again to Letraset for their generosity 

If you haven't used Flexmarkers, they are the same alcohol ink pens as the ProMarkers, but they have a flexible brush nib, and a wedge nib, rather than the bullet nib of the ProMarkers. They are interchangeable of course, you can use flexmarkers with pro's and vice versa,  and it's worth looking at the Flexmarker range as they have some lovely colours that aren't available in ProMarkers if you want to expand your colour palette 

So  here we go again, good luck....

The shop at Craftwork Cards....

I thought you would like to see the shop at the Craftwork Cards headquarters - it looked so pretty, no wonder everyone was reaching for their wallets!

In the evening, Sue took us to see the Strictly Come Dancing live show at the Leeds arena. Here she is with Julie......it was a great evening, thank you Sue

and Jill......

and Kath and me - helpless with laughter about something, as usual. I was so cold I didn't take my coat off until the second half of the show!

Although I am not a Strictly fan, I had watched enough to know the personalities, and it was a great show, very sequinny and glitzy, and the dancing was wonderful. I love the foxtrots where they sort of hop around the floor, I would love to do that, preferably in a fabulous chiffon dress with someone like Fred Astaire - okay, he's dead, I would make do with Ben Cohen at a push......

So that's the last post on the workshop. Back to normal tomorrow, see you then x

Flying High....

Here are the quick 'Fill the time' cards that I designed for the workshop - we wanted  to make sure that everyone was busy for the whole day, and had plenty of projects to carry home with them.....

This first one uses the lovely Flying High collection, and is made using one of CWC's swing card bases..

This next one uses the very lovely Opulence papers and die cut flowers and a flower shaped card.....

and more flying high, with the addition of a couple of Memory Box clouds....

Of course, Kath and I seem to attract "situations" wherever we go. We had hardly climbed down from our trains on arrival at the station when a man lurched up to Kath and peering myopically into her face said 'it's cold isn't it?' Now my daft friend, instead of nodding and turning away when confronted with a swaying drunk two inches from her nose said 'you're not from round here are you?' Of course not, he was from Glasgow, so then a sort of Scottish language frenzy went on, with Kath backing nervously away as he got closer and closer.

Then we were due to catch a train to Garforth where the factory is based. We were up at 6 a.m and duly sitting on the train as it chugged out of the station, it chugged and chugged for about five miles then stopped, in the middle of nowhere. The lights went out. We were the only people in the carriage at that early hour on a Saturday morning. So we sat there in the gloom, getting colder and colder. Eventually a guard came along and said that the headlights had failed and they had to back up to Leeds again. Headlights? Why do they need headlights, it was broad daylight! But rules are rules, so backwards we went, chug chug chug....then we had to dash to the other end of the very big station to catch a train that had headlights and was facing the right way. By this time we were exhausted and laughing hysterically, and the day hadn't even begun...... 

See you tomorrow, when I am taking up grandma duties and looking after Max and Milo for a couple of days

Home again.....Breathe....

Home again after a very fun filled day at the Craftwork Cards workshop where there were 53 very dedicated crafters who were all really lovely, so I came away feeling as if I had made new friends......some of them were very experienced crafters, and some of them had never played with paper before....  

This was their first project, a table decoration designed by Kath.....

i met quite a few of my blog followers, including Chris who comes on here regularly, so that was a bonus for me, putting faces to names....

At lunchtime, Jill, one of the ladies popped into the office......

and presented us with these lovely goodies, a box of chocs, some handmade coasters and a calendar, wasn't that kind of her, and much appreciated by us. Thank you so much Jill xx

The first project after lunch was this white on white box and matching card that I had designed.....

I got Julie to demonstrate making the box......and I wandered around showing everyone how to make double or triple loop bows....... 

We had designed some more projects so that every minute was packed, I'll share those tomorrow. Once again, thanks to everyone who turned up for making our advance work and planning so worthwhile xx 

A little treat.....

Today is the long awaited workshop at Craftwork Cards. Kath and I have been die cutting leaves, butterflies and clouds in their hundreds. I have discovered that excess use of the Big Shot is good for the upper arms, but very bad for the old joints. So I have dragged it all onto the train, and here I am, with butterflies in my case and a few in my stomach!

It's always a bit of a downer to hear about other people having fun when you are not one of 'the gang', so to soften the blow and to keep you going until I get home on Sunday, here is a little giveaway for one of you. A brand new pack of the brand new Craftwork Cards Jacob papers - you get 36 sheets of 8 x 8 paper, and I am adding four sheets of the matching paper bows, all ready for you to decorate your cards. Just leave your name under this post, I will draw a winner on Thursday, and as always, I will mail to anywhere in the world. Good luck (and wish me luck too, Kath is a veteran of workshops, it's a bit of a step into the unknown for me! 

Another Shoe....

 Here's one I made with a perfectly lovely shoe stamp from UK company Katy Sue Designs.....

Coloured with ProMarkers the paper is from the Sherbert collection by Craftwork Cards, and the Happy Birthday die is by Memory Box - this one is going to get a LOT of use by me...

Thanks for all the very interesting comments on my last post, it made fascinating reading. 

I am all packed, and by the time you read this will probably be on a train somewhere between here and Leeds. The workshop is a full house (nervous, hope it all runs like clockwork) and I am sure we will have a lot of fun. On Saturday night we are going with Julie and Sue to see the Strictly Come Dancing live show. Break out the fake tan and sequins. Expect lots of photos next week, and for those of you who won't be there tomorrow, I may have a little treat for someone....

See you then x

Happy Mail - and another winner.....

Look what's arrived.....

a very heavy box, all the way from France, with the Fuse that Fiskars kindly sent me in return for making a fool of myself taking part in the craft event at the NEC in November. More to come on this, much much more, but for now I have to content myself with giving it a little pat every so often, no time to play until the workshop is over this weekend....

and look what else has arrived, lovely new products from Craftwork Cards. I know that a lot of you live in the USA, the good news is that these papers were launched at CHA and will be available in the USA soon - keep an eye out for them....

These die cut paper bow pads are such a good idea...

new card shapes......

and the gorgeous Flying High collection......at present available from Create and Craft TV

Totally in love with this paper...

I saved my favourite until last. I have a thing about rich chocolate browns, gorgeous on their own, but they complement so many other colours as well, and I just love the coffee and cream look of this collection called Opulence

On to the winner of the ProMarker set of 12 colours. The lucky winner is.....

IONA BUNNY

Congrats Iona, send me an email and they will be on their way. Vicky R, one of yesterday's winners hasn't been in touch, as always I will redraw if I haven't heard after seven days - it's happened a couple of times!

On to the last lap of sorting stuff out for Saturday's workshop. See you tomorrow x

Delicate Shoe Die and some winners

 Remember the pretty shoe die and new Papermania papers I showed you? Here's what I have been making with them. Boy that die is delicate, it was a devil of a job to stick it to the background.....

but it makes a pretty card I think.....

Sorry about the lighting in the second photo. The problem is that I am very much a night owl, I don't do mornings, and usually when I finish a card it is dark outside, so not always the best conditions for photography. Still, you get the idea! 

Right I used random.org to draw the winners of the votive wraps. The first name is:

Veronica Reynolds (Vicky R)

Vicky wins the wraps and this month's Papercraft Inspirations magazine

and the second name is

Peggy T

who wins the second lot of votive wraps

Congrats ladies, email me with your addresses and I will get them in the mail to you. 
I'll post the winner of the Letraset Promarkers tomorrow, see you then x

Birthday Cake Cards

 Sharing a couple of birthday cake cards from a past issue of Papercraft Inspirations magazine - I can never show them, apart from a sneak peek, until well after that edition has been published, so these were in the June magazine last year......

Papers are by K & Co

and this one was cut with the Cricut, but I forget the cartridge.....

Running a blog is a bit like waiting for a bus, you wait forever, then two come along at once. I often have stuff that I can't show you - yet - then some days I have about three things that I must show you,  all on one day. Mind you, I don't know why I used a bus analogy, I haven't been on a bus for about twenty years. Maybe I should try one day, now that I have a bus pass, no wait, I don't have one of those either I thought I would never use it. It could be quite therapeutic riding on the top deck of a double decker, watching the world go by, maybe I should get one. I think they make you do difficult stuff like getting a passport photo taken to get a bus pass, so the chances of me doing that are close to zero. Either I would keep forgetting until I was halfway home, or I would remember, look in a mirror and decide that I was having a bad hair day. I mean, the urgency isn't there is it, not like when your passport runs out. You can't really compare a trip to Birmingham with the thought that you may miss that flight to America............

See you tomorrow x