Matchbox with Pop Up Gift Card Holder - Video

Today, I have a video showing you how to make this cute pop up matchbox gift card holder.....

Slide the box open and up pops the holder...fun! To watch the video on YouTube click HERE

To make this video there was blood, sweat and tears, and probably a couple of years off my life, so I hope you enjoy it - and remind me to stick to simple projects in future!

Have a great weekend x

Valentine Cricut Cards.....

So I showed you Max's Valentine card, here are the cards I made for the other grandchildren - this first one is for Kiki, I used Home Accents for the 'love' cut, and cut it twice, once in pink gemstone core-dinations cardstock, and once in white.....

I embossed the white heart with a heart embossing folder, and realized later that I had glued it with the de-bossed side upwards. Hey ho, it didn't matter....

This next one is for five year old Milo, who is a bit fixated on superheroes at the moment. It's a print and cut from the Paper Dolls Dress Up cartridge - I added a M for Milo to his vest, and added some glitter to the belt, mask and boots. Now I know that this makes him look a bit camp,  as if he is on his way to a Village People revival gig, and is about to throw his hands up in the air and start singing YMCA, but he needed a bit of bling!

and this one is for Monty, who I took to Disneyland Paris last year, so it seemed the right cut to use......

It is bitterly cold here, and we keep getting snow showers, but it's that wet snow that doesn't stick, so it's not exactly 'snowmaggedon' here, but I am watching out for the first real snowfall, and waiting for the country to grind to a halt, paralysed by an inch of snow - happens every year, how merrily the rest of the world must laugh at our predicament, but it's quite reassuring to know that our weather forecasters aren't the only guys to get it a tiny bit wrong - even I was on the edge of my seat this week waiting for the storm of the century to hit New York, (and of course delighted that it didn't).......but seeing the scientist guys a bit red faced and apologetic is strangely satisfying, and rather welcome, at least we know now that we aren't the only ones with forecasters who seem to make it up as they go along. 

It's a job I quite fancy doing, standing in front of a camera, making those sweeping hand gestures across a map of the world, smiling prettily and cheerfully when I tell you that there is going to be torrential wind and rain and your roof may blow off, then after five minutes of breaking bad news to the nation, I could flash my best Julia Roberts imitation smile and say goodbye....then go and do nice things like shopping and sitting in Starbucks for an hour or two. I would just have to hide, wear dark glasses like a film star in case I'm recognized, when everyone else comes in looking like drowned rats because I had told them it was going to be a lovely dry day......

All day dreams of course, I am about a hundred and fifty years too old for the job - have you noticed, wherever you are in the world, the weather people always have immaculate shiny hair and extra white shiny teeth, and have only recently endured the ordeal of puberty. They never look as if they've been caught in a torrential downpour either, come to think of it - perhaps they know something they aren't telling us...

See you tomorrow x

Jazzing up Cricut Explore Print and Cuts.......

I have been happily using the Print and Cut feature on the Cricut Explore, it is so easy to do, and you can print and cut  any Cricut image at the click of a mouse, very useful for quick cards, and as you can see from the images below it cuts out beautifully - look at the strings on the balloons and the skinny little Mickey and Minnie tails.....

I haven't done a video of the process of print & cut - there are dozens of very good videos out there on YouTube, but I did think it would be interesting to look at how flat the images look when they are first printed out and cut, and how you can dress them up to look quite dimensional........

Watch the video here or CLICK to see it on YouTube

Things I have learnt over the weekend when trying to make another video:

Note to self......

Do not choose a project that is so complicated it is hard to edit it down to a manageable length. Ten minutes would be good. If people want to see a blockbuster they will go to the movies....

Try to remember that the little icon that looks like a pair of scissors in the video editing programme is, in fact, a pair of scissors, and if you click on it, pouf, your video is sliced into tiny little shreds and you haven't found an icon that looks like a tube of glue yet, so leave the scissors alone......

Try to avoid doing a voiceover when husband is watching a football match. Great shouts of  'YEEEESSS' and 'SEND HIM OFF REF,' don't add anything to a video.........

Filming in broad daylight is best. If you have been distracted by the shouty husband, and the little scissors icon thingy, and the day is turning into evening, all of a sudden you have great shadows everywhere, and every so often the shadow of your head and face appears on the paper you are working with, making it look as if you have just been visited by something  from the Exorcist... 

It's best to have coffee breaks at regular intervals. I recommend one every ten minutes, but after 6 p.m when you have been dealing with electronic scissors/sport watching husband/ghostly images all day, it's okay to move on to gin.....  

My Craft Space - and some winners.....

A lot of you said you wanted to see my craft space, really, it isn't anything very special, I just have a cupboard really, but your wish is my command, so here it is. CLICK to see it on Youtube




and now on to the winners of all my duplicate stuff

 Studio G Stamps - Jane Willis

Cuttlebug Folders and Sizzlits dies - Jane - (Jane's Journal)

Cherryblossom Lane CD - Pamela (Pamela's Pages)

Paper Boutique CD - Pinky

Paper Couture paper pad - Poppyluva

Card Candi - Dianne Bell

Letraset fineliners - Lythan 

Letraset fineliners - Crafty Jo  

Congrats to all of you, I hope you enjoy. Email me at enfysc@yahoo.co.uk with your address

To make you smile this Monday morning, five year old Monty was doing his homework with his dad helping him. They were researching a French eighteenth century painter (really? when did that become essential knowledge for a five year old.....)

" Were you born in the olden days Dad?" asked Monty

"Why do you ask that, son?"

"Because you know a lot about this artist, I wondered if you knew him"

I'll be back tomorrow with a video, see you then x

More Katy Sue Shabby Chic....and a giveaway

Here are the last samples from the Create and Craft Katy Sue Design shows, I actually found time to watch one of them, which must be a first for me, and Noreen was doing a grand job with the demonstrations. I made this little tag - you can tell I was very attracted to the blue and green papers.....

and this canvas took me ages to make, but it did get an airing, it's a 18 x 12 canvas, and there is all sorts of stuff going on in the background - texture paste, stencils, acrylic paints and washes, you name it, I had fun getting inky with this one, and I really love those daisy papers....

Now to my last big clear out giveaways, this time I have four brand new black fineliner pens by Letraset



 I love these, they don't smudge when used with alcohol inks, so you can use them to draw in fine little details that your stamp may have missed, I often use them to accentuate the stamped image eyes, and if I cut out an image, I use one of these to draw a fine line around the image so that you don't get white edges, and it looks as if you have been very precise with your scissors. You get four nib sizes, ranging from super extra fine, to a thicker line.  And of course, they are brilliant for drawing - I just wish I was brilliant at drawing too!  I have not one, but TWO sets of black fineliners to give away, so if you would like to own a set, just leave your name under this post.

See you tomorrow x

More samples - and duplicates

 I can show you a couple of complete cards today, since the shows start on Create and Craft this morning - I love the colours in this Shabby Chic collection....I think the shows are on at 8 am, 11 am, 2 pm, 4 pm and a couple in the evening

and for the next giveaway in my duplicated stuff spring clean, I have a new and unopened pack of Paper Couture papers by Craftwork Cards - 36 8 x 8 double sided pattern papers,three sheets of foiled die cut mannekins, three sheets of co-ordinating sentiments, and some card candi

and for another lucky winner, loads of packs of Craftwork Cards Candi in every colour under the sun!

If you fancy adding to your stash with some of this loveliness, just leave your name below this post

Thanks to everyone who let me know the state of the verification/robot thingy. It seems strange that the robot appears to some and not to others, but a useful tip that a couple of you gave, and which I didn't know, is that you can just ignore it and publish your comment anyway. I don't quite know what happens - I have visions of a virtual robot stomping off in a huff because nobody is paying attention and obeying his orders....

I had a busy day yesterday, doctor, dentist, hairdresser - oh and doing a bit of filming as well. I had my video hat on again, now to edit.........

See you tomorrow x

Sneak Peeks....and more duplicates

Here's a sneaky peek at some projects I have been making for Katy Sue designs, a lovely new collection called Shabby Chic, it premieres tomorrow, Thursday on Create and Craft TV, be sure to catch the show - the first one airs at 8.00 a.m

On with the duplicates, today I have a treat for two of you, gorgeous CD's from Polkadoodles. As you know I was on the Polkadoodles design team right from the start of the company, and now that I have left, Nikky Hall, the owner and designer who is a good friend still sponsors my blog with lovely giveaways for you. But these CD's are duplicates - when I was living part-time in the USA and travelling backwards and forwards, Nikky always gave me two of the latest CD's so that I didn't have to lug them back and forth across the Atlantic

So here is the first one, a copy of the wonderful Cherry Blossom Lane which you can see HERE
and Paper Boutique vol 1 which you can see HERE

As before, leave a comment under this post if you would like to add one of these to your stash. If you have one of the CD's mentioned, tell me and if I draw your name I will make sure you don't get a duplicate

I felt very guilty yesterday when I was reading your comments, here and on Facebook,  about the old magazine pages I had clipped, lots of comments along the lines of keeping and preserving memories. Ooops. I tossed them after I took the photos...Never mind

Can you tell me if you are having to do that irritating word verification thing when you leave a comment on here please? It's all switched off and I try to make it as easy as possible for folk to pop here and chat, but someone said something that made me wonder if that silly 'prove you are not a robot' thing is active. Thanks

See you tomorrow x

Walking down memory lane....

So during the great clear out I found a folder full of papers and was just about to toss them when out fell some clippings of some of the very first magazine commissions I ever did - back in the day when I was new to it all and carefully clipped out every photo and every word I ever wrote....

So I snapped a photo of the pages - I was quite proud of this Halloween party invitation because I drew those shoes freehand as they needed a template for the magazine....I hand drew the creepy spider border as well

and here are some new year cards I made for Creativity magazine five years ago....

So on to another little giveaway, this time some embossing folders and some
Sizzlits dies, there are some craft concept ones, a couple of Tim Holtz alterations and some cuttlebug. So if you want to add to your collection, leave your name under this post

The Sizzlits dies all have four different buttons on them, and the tea cups are a metal stencil....

See you tomorrow x

It's all been a bit of a mess.....

 Here I am, back at my rather immaculate desk, but not before it went through this hurricane.....

 So I found these plastic document wallets in Poundland, five to a pack, so I bought up the whole stock and started unmounting my wood block stamps and putting together my clear stamps, which had mainly become separated from their partners and were huddling in little lonely acrylic blobs in a corner of the drawer...

 So I reunited them all, popped them onto acrylic cut to fit the envelope, then stamped them onto some copy paper. Then the new Brother labelling machine really came into it's own and I made a label with the name and maker for each of the stamps...

 Then I made some dividers and labelled them into loose categories - animals, scenes, flowers and so on.............I know the boxes are a bit of a hideous colour, but it was a choice between that or neon pink. The pink envelopes in the box aren't significant at all, it's not some grand plan - Poundland ran out of the clear ones, and as they are tucked in a box, it really doesn't matter.... 

and two boxes later I was done - this little task took me three days! But it also freed up four precious drawers, so I was able to reorganise so that the stuff I use most often is now close to hand...

 I reinstated my magnetic strips on the doors for the dies that I use all the time - I did this ages ago, and forget why I stopped using this, there is probably a very real reason that I will find out in the fullness of time, but for now, it looks good...

These shelves were quite literally groaning with the weight of boxes, now it has been pared down to a few, all neatly labelled so that I can find everything...

and even the shoe tidies which I use to keep stuff like spare blending foams, washi tapes, sandpaper, foam pads etc have been given a thorough clear-out...

Huge amounts of papers, ribbons and flowers have been donated to a local school, so although I spent a good deal of time last week scratching my head when I found mysterious little pots of unidentified junk stuff, that I don't have the faintest idea how to use (and will never find out, because it went in the black sack of doom), I did find it really rather liberating to pare down so much, and certainly very satisfying....

On top of all this, I had to get to grips with my new laptop but that is another story....

and on the premise that one man's junk is another's treasure, I have unearthed quite a few things that I'll be putting here over the next few days, if you fancy anything or everything, just leave your name under that day's post. First up are all these duplicated Studio G stamps - when we had our house in Florida, I used to haunt Michaels and Jo-Anns for these little stamps, mainly for the sentiments, which are really cute, but just recently I have been using a lot of the tiny icons as well. Anyway there are 20+ duplicates here, all ready to go to a new home. As always I will mail anywhere in the world

See you tomorrow - it's nice to be back x

A bit of a break...

Just a quick post from me today - I have been a bit in the wars with various things and now, for the icing on the cake, I have a streaming head cold. So in the middle of all this to stop feeling sorry for myself I decided to clear up my craft space. Well, that was a bit of a silly decision, now I am surrounded by bags and bags of stuff, the more I looked, the more I made the brave decision that most of this stuff can go. If I haven't used it for five years, why should I start using it now? To tell you the truth, some of the little pots of mysterious stuff I don't have a clue what to do with, it was obviously a must-have back in the day......and don't mention the paper. All those times I bought a whole stack just because it was on sale or because I liked one paper - pity about the other 48 sheets! 

Then there is the ribbon. I hardly ever use ribbon, I could put pretty bows on the hair of every little girl in the UK and still have enough left over for a maypole or two..... Of course, a lot of these unopened packs have red sale stickers on them, that's why I bought them, I never could resist a bargain. Some bargain when they have been renting space in my room for five years without any payback...

So, the die is cast. I have contacted a friend who works in a school so a forest worth of papers and ribbons and stuff will be going there. The ruthless pruning means that there is four large sacks of rubbish already, but the good news is that I have SPACE. Room to move, room to breathe, room to create. I was getting twitchy about not posting anything on here, but you know what? I am taking the rest of this week to get myself in control again, everything is going to be so perfectly ordered you won't believe it - neither will I until it happens!

And the really good news is that I have unearthed a few things that are duplicates or were meant to be given away as blog candy, so watch this space, until then, just pass me another black sack and I'll be on my way......... x  

What a drama....

Well, it's been a bit dramatic here over the past few days -  both our ancient desktop computer, and the almost as ancient laptop decided to take a well earned retirement on the same day. Gosh, how we depend on these machines! So it's been an action packed couple of days, luckily I have an iPad so was able to do the usual Google research etc, but iPad's and Blogger aren't the best of friends, so here I am, finding my way around a brand new computer. I haven't a clue how to upload photos and edit them yet, but I did upload a quick video to YouTube before the big crash.......and believe me, making this wasn't without a bit of drama either. I filmed it first upside down, then filmed it again, and when I edited the video I had managed to film a totally immobile scrap of card stock on my desk, all the action was well and truly out of shot! Third time lucky.....

You may well have seen this tip before, but I find it so fantastic I thought I would share it for those who haven't come across it. Watch it below, or go HERE to watch it on YouTube




I have about finished making samples now, so hopefully I will be back tomorrow if I ever learn how to upload pictures....see you then x

Thanks Card - and a video

I'm getting back in the creating mode now after all the excitement of Christmas - I have been busy making some samples for Katy Sue Designs, which I can't show you yet, but I did find time to not only make a card, but a video as well!..........

Or watch HERE on YouTube



I do enjoy making these videos, apart from two things, I hate seeing my hands and I hate hearing my voice, so I may well look for some body/voice double to take on the role. I could just be the bossy director.....nah, wouldn't work would it. I'll just have to grin and bear it along with you. I am finding it quite difficult to find projects that can be condensed into a reasonable time frame though, watching paint dry is no fun for anyone. If you have anything you would like to see, let me know. See you tomorrow x

Organization......

So in the spirit of keeping New Year resolutions, I decided I couldn't live for a moment longer without a label maker - this of course means that I instantly broke another resolution not to spend money on unnecessary stuff.....

So I bought this label maker from Amazon, bargain, it was only £12.....

then I saw the cost of the replacement cartridges - more than the machine cost! But, always with an eye on a bargain, I quickly tracked down some compatible cartridges, just as good as the real thing, but half the price....

and you know what? I really like it. The labels are self adhesive and laminated, so now all my new inkpads are labelled.....

and so are my distress inks.....

I do tend to get a bit carried away with new toys though, so Mike is walking around with a wary look on his face whenever he sees me with label maker in hand - I'm pretty sure the poor guy thinks I will make a 'husband' label and attach it to his forehead....ridiculous, of course I won't, I'll put it on his sweater.....

There is a limit to what you can label though, I am moving on to stamps next I think and I am about to have a huge purge of pattern papers as well, I have boxes and boxes of them and will never use most of them. It's all quite exhausting being so organized...

While I haven't had much time apart from labelling duties to do anything crafty, I did throw a dinner party....... 

and suddenly realized that after four years of not drinking any alcohol at all (it had a very adverse effect on my heart) that, after my ablation my heart is now fine and I could have a glass or two. What I overlooked was that after such a long period of drought, it would go right to my head. Oops!

So that was another new year day wasted, just getting over that! Maybe the start of the year isn't going exactly as planned, but I'm enjoying it...see you tomorrow x

Happy New Year

Firstly let me wish you all, wherever you are in the world, a very happy, peaceful and healthy new year. I hope you aren't nursing hangovers - I am certainly not as we were very boring and stayed home to watch the new year in on TV

Resolutions? I have many, all to disappear into the mists of time on or around January 5th 2015. As far as crafting goes, I really do want to make at least one card making video each week, I want to be more organised as far as blogging goes, and I want to try and stop being seduced into buying stuff I don't need - there, now you all know my resolutions, and can sit and smile as you watch me break them....

Being organised would have meant that I finished showing my favourite cards of 2014 yesterday, instead of kicking off a new year with last year's stuff, but there you go, I only decided to be organised today, so you will have to bear with me - I really can't leave poor old 2014 hanging unfinished in June can I? So on we go......

July





August





September - was totally given over to a whole series of giveaways to celebrate 3,000 followers

October





November - here comes Christmas!





I'm not re-hashing December - it's still warm!

Once again, a happy happy new year to you all, thanks for keeping me company here over the past year, and I look forward to sharing my crafting adventures with you in 2015. 

See you tomorrow x