Tear it up - for Daring Cardmakers

The dare this week over at Daring Cardmakers was 'tear it up' and here is what I came up with..... I tore out a page of an old A - Z (it happens to be my hometown)

and here is the final card, I rather like it! The little metal car is a brad I picked up in Frankfurt at the trade show four years ago, I knew it would come in handy one day.....

So in the middle of the bleak midwinter, our boiler packed up. The guy came, shook his head sorrowfully, did that pursed lips thing that tradesmen do when they are going to give you bad news, and announced the demise of the boiler. So on a day when gale force winds have swept the UK, we have had all exterior doors open, no heat and no hot water. It will be Saturday before the new boiler is up and running. Feeling just a bit miserable......well, a lot miserable actually.  

CHSI Trade Show.......

It's been a busy few days, time for the big UK trade craft show. I wasn't working, just a visitor, wandering around making a nuisance of myself and catching up with friends in the craft industry. I got a gift - Diane from my Fiskarettes design team made me my own little pincushion, like a little voodoo doll monster. I guess when I am tearing my hair out over a project that is going a bit haywire, I can take my frustrations out on my new desk buddy!

 I did go along to help set up the Fiskars stand. It looked pretty good when we stepped back to admire it.....

 Me with my Fiskarettes team mate Diane Williams, who is a permanent member of the team and a huge support to me, I haven't got a photo of Keren Baker, also on the team who was demoing the sewing tools on the stand - it was great to meet up in person at last with these two, who keep me sane when the going gets tough! Here is Diane again with my BFF Kath Stewart, longtime member of the Fiskars family......................

 This was a stunning applique piece

 Fancy knitting a tree anyone? Yes, the whole of
this display was knitted!






The quilts on display were stunning

and as always, the Paper Artsy
card displays were very inspiring.....

Geometric - for Daring Cardmakers

Once again I am being stretched by the Daring Cardmakers challenge, this week it was Leo daring us to make something geometric. Now since I am the very opposite of a maths genius, in fact, I am rather obtuse about angles, this took a bit of thinking about....

I started out with some black card, and added strips of masking tape in a pattern that looked sort of geometric...

 Then I used a Versamark pad to ink each little section individually, and sprinkled different coloured WOW embossing powder onto each section, heating each bit as I went along.....

When I peeled off the masking tape....ta da..it looks geometric to me. It looks a bit somber in the photo but is gorgeously gleaming in real life. This will definitely be a card for one of the guys. Do pop over to DCM see how the team tackled this weeks dare, and do try and join in - I dare you!

I recently found a white on clear tape for my Brother P touch label maker, and am in love with it - I can now type sentiments and put them onto black or dark cardstock and they really pop. I love this tool! 

The road repair guys sat and stared at the rushing water for a full day - well, it was raining, they probably didn't want to get wet. But before they went home, they set up temporary traffic lights right outside our house, and barriers around a bare patch of tarmac. Why? But next day, they had obviously had their porridge for breakfast and were full of energy, a large hole was dug, they shouted instructions to each other all day and seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of tea coming from somewhere - it certainly wasn't from me, my usual warmth and kindness towards my fellow humans had vanished as my exasperation grew the previous day. So all is well, the torrent has stopped, although the water seems to have made rather a large pothole in the road - shall I call the council? No, let's leave it for now.....I need time to get over the flood first 

Mirror Mirror - for Daring Cardmakers....

This weeks dare over on Daring Cardmakers is to use something shiny or reflective - now once again this was a bit of a challenge for me, I don't use much mirri card at all, not really my style, and it is so darn difficult to photograph as well, but I came up with this using a Memory Box die....

It's one of those negative dies, so it was easy just to back it with gold card, and I punched out a few little hearts to scatter around. I thought it would make a great Golden Wedding Anniversary card......

So there is clearly a blocked drain or something in the road outside our house, a mini torrent of water has been flowing down the road for days now. We called the water board, they came and surveyed, scratching their heads, then there was no action for days, while the water continued to puddle outside our drive. Today, big action......four vans and eight guys turned up, laden with very important stuff like barriers to close the road off. And Action............
No, they have been sitting in their vans for five hours as I write this, the water continues to flow, and they continue to stare at it. Sometimes I despair...........

Love - and my Valentine!

Over on the Fiskarettes UK Facebook page, the design team have been coming up with their ideas for Valentines this week, hop over and take a look. Here's mine, using some brand new corner punches and a new intricate shape LOVE word punch (love that font!)

and talking of love, here is my little sweetheart Molly, looking very serious.....

but she is the happiest little baby. Every day she wakes up smiling, happy and at just ten weeks old very very chatty! It's 'YAY! It's a lovely new day! let's have a gurgle and a coo about that.......' So she got the chatty gene from me, but definitely not the happy morning gene - I need at least two cups of coffee before I can summon up a smile in the morning!

See you tomorrow with my latest dare for Daring Cardmakers.... xx

What a dare!.....

So this week the dare over on Daring Cardmakers was this inspirational photo - Crikey! What to do with that? But a dare is a dare............

You have to incorporate three elements, so I picked out the tiny metal hexagon shapes, the colour orange, and two shades of embossing powder to represent the different metals - a copper and a gold, both by WOW. I decided to make it a get well card that would be suitable for a male....

Not quite sure what happened to the colour in this next photo, totally bleached out, but it gives more of a close up view of all that stamping I did!

How would you tackle this challenge? Pop over to Daring Cardmakers to see what the rest of the design team came up with, and join in the fun.......