Beach Days....

Here's a Emma Canning image on the Digistamp Heaven CD for Polkadoodles, I cut her out using the Scan N Cut - it did a pretty good job I think. Then I coloured her clothes using buttercup, mustard and ivory ProMarkers....

I wanted her to look tanned, so decided to start by colouring in the areas that always catch the sun in Coral.....

then I added Tan, going over the areas already coloured with the Coral marker as well to blend it.....

then I went over all the skin with ivory, drawing in the other colours. Her hair was done with Ginger and Spice, and the deckchair with Lime and Lime Zest

I used the lovely new Harbour Boulevard papers from Craftwork Cards and cut a wave border with a built-in design on the Scan N Cut - I positioned her so that she looks as if she has pulled up her chair to the waters edge and is having a paddle. I hope she remembered the sunscreen with those red shoulders!

See you tomorrow x

Scan N Cut Shoe Card.....

Here's one I made with the shoe that is a built in design on the Scan N Cut - of course, if you have a Cricut or a Sillhoutte this would be easy to do.....The black was cut from the borders twice, and layered onto a DCWV corrugated cream card. The happy birthday background is by Authentique

A favourite pair of my shoes has a leather pom pom on the front, so instead of putting a flower to decorate the shoes, I rolled up some crunchy fringing and glued that into place.....

I have had a very busy weekend with loads of crafting goals on my 'to-do' list now checked, done and dusted. I have hurt my back, but stupidly bravely struggled on, that chair I sit in to craft gets rather hard after a while, and normally, I am reaching up for stuff on shelves, and dash around to get something from the other side of the room, but today it has been a series of groans and cries of ouch! But for now, I am basking in that glow of knowing that my list is done - until the postman calls tomorrow with the next project that I know is on it's way

See you then

Scan N Cut Ace Brithday

 Another card made with just the built in shapes on the Scan N Cut machine. This was supposed to be a quick card - I had designed it in my head, and it seemed straightforward - Ha! First of all I forgot to adjust the blade depth and cut right through the mat...........

Then I spent ages fiddling around cutting tiny little hearts, spades etc for the corners of the playing cards, and after all that faffing around decided I didn't need them. Then I lost the tiny letter stickers I wanted to use......

and whatever possessed me to choose this split letter type font when it was cut at 1" - the pieces were so tiny to fit together! Anyway, the clubs, spade, diamond and hearts motifs were in the machine, and I cut out rounded corner rectangles, also a built in shape for the playing cards....

Still, in the end it came out pretty much as I had imagined, and I rather like it for a male birthday card. One random tip about the Scan N Cut, which is totally irrational and doesn't make sense, but sometimes when you scan in an image to cut, say a stamped image, although the stamping is clear with unbroken lines, the machine just will not pick up the outline. I have discovered that if you move the image to another spot on your mat and try again, it almost always works. How very odd! It also seems to get confused sometimes if there are too many images on one page, if that happens I just cut off the bit that didn't scan, then scan and cut it separately.

   All in all, I am really enjoying the machine, although I haven't even tried to use the Canvas software yet, I am just playing with the stuff that is already on the machine. One thing I hope they rectify quickly is the lack of an 'undo' button, it's irritating to have to go back to the beginning if you make a mistake. I can't remember having so much fun with any other machine when it was new though, so I'm enjoying the learning curve

Have a great weekend x  

Friends are like pockets....

Continuing with my mission to make some cards using only the built in shapes in the Scan N Cut machine, I came up with this idea..... 

I used one of the basic shapes, and folded over the point to make it look like a pocket, I added some black card behind the glasses and covered that with glossy accents - they look a bit smudged in the photo, it must be the light because they are lovely and glossy in real life. A bit of stitching, and a couple of the wavy borders from the machine and I was done. Papers are from a very old stack by Martha Stewart, and the sentiment is also an old one from Stampin Up

It's been a work in progress kind of day for me, I have stuff that I need to get done and dusted before my next little jolly outing on the 5th May - a trip to France and Belgium to visit the world war one battlefields, well, it won't be so jolly, I shall probably spend four days in floods of tears at the total waste of so many young lives. 

Now I don't speak French, I regret not paying more attention in school, but I didn't. So I found this iPad app called Duolingo, and decided that by the time I went on this trip I would be at least able to say with some authority 'another gin and tonic please' or understand what I was about to eat. I was very enthusiastic for about two weeks, and kept coming out with bizarre statements to a bemused husband 'this apple is red' I would announce in French, with all the gravitas of the Prime Minister announcing a reduction in income tax. I can also tell you that the elephant is grey, and that the boy likes cake. All of this will, I'm sure come in very very useful around the battlefields of the Somme. I sort of lost interest after a couple of weeks, I wasn't sure how many grey elephants and red apples I would come across, so
the impetus vanished, and I shall just have to fall back on the time-honoured British way of speaking English very very slowly in a loud voice.....I'll let you know if that works, and if I see any elephants

See you tomorrow

Burlap and Flowers....

When I was in Florida a couple of weeks ago, if you remember I met up with a bunch of friends from the old Cricut message board, one of them, Carol, is a good online friend but it was the first time I had met her in person. She gave me such a lovely gift - these gorgeous papers and burlap flowers by DCWV. I decided to make an easel card. The scallop circles and the burgundy scroll were cut with the Scan N Cut. The burlap paper on the base is also by DCWV and is real burlap on a paper backing.........

the  kraft sentiment is by Craftwork cards and was perfect for the very textured card......

thank you so much Carol, I totally love everything you gave me, look out for more cards very soon......

Those of you who have been coming here for ages are well acquainted with my six year old grandson Max, who has given us many a laugh over the years with his hilarious questions and stories, so I thought I would share this photo I snapped of him at the weekend, I love it, he is looking so thoughtful - no doubt he was thinking of his next impossible-to-answer question.....

See you tomorrow x

Happy Birthday Anne - and some winners.....

Today is my very good friend Anne's birthday. I made her this card using a shop window from the Fabulous Fellas CD by Katy Sue Designs - no she is not a fella (but she is a fabulous friend) but she is an artist, and I just loved this little bow window art shop. All the elements were cut out using my other new best friend the Scan N Cut. I used some acetate from packaging materials I'd salvaged to make the windows. The little pot is air dried clay, made with a mould also by Katy Sue

Happy birthday Anne xxx  

I hope you didn't go into chocolate overload yesterday? We did the egg hunt thing just before the heavens opened, what a soggy day it was for us. My son had bought some gadget for himself that six year old Max was very taken with (something to do with phones, I haven't a clue.....)

'Daddy, when you are elderly, can I have this please?'

'Your daddy may still need it when he is elderly Max' I pointed out

'No, old people just sit in a chair and watch TV. He won't need this then...' 

A whole generation written off in a single sweeping sentence uttered by a six year old!

Now on to the winners of the various giveaways I posted last week. Firstly for the (slightly used) Polkadoodles Paper Boutique CD. The names were all chosen using random.org, and the one that came up for this prize was:

JAN who said...............

Hi Enfys, Wow what a fantastic tip for making the mats sticky again, that will prove to be an invaluable method for me, thank you so much!

I love all of the cards, the robot would be perfect for my little grandsons.

I would love to win the CD, thank you for the opportunity.

Hugs Jan xxx

Next, the winner of the UK/Europe crafty goodies (set one) is:

RHIAN PENNANT who said......

Would love a Michaels in my home town, Llandudno North Wales. Diolch thank you Enfys
Rhian

Lastly, the winner of  Set 2 is:

JESSICA who said......

 Jessica said...

I have a friend in Australia who recently got a Scan N Cut, so I sent her to see your posts. I'm sure she'll love them. I'd love the DVD. Which is great since I'm in the US;) You are so sweet to bring some Michaels things for your European friends. I'm sure they'll love them. TFS Hugs, Jess

Congrats to you all, if you can email me with your address your goodies will be winging their way to you

Happy Birthday to Moo.....

Okay folks, I make no excuses for another Scan N Cut card today - well, you have to allow me to play with it for a while. This time I cut out elements from the Back to Nature CD by Polkadoodles (look at the cow eyelashes!).....

It made a bright and cheery springtime card......

I had some printed out bits left over, so made this card as well, it made me smile. I hand cut the grass and used some bits and pieces of cut out flowers to dot around....

I will be sorting out the winners of the giveaways tomorrow, but if you haven't already left your names, scroll down for the posts to leave your names and be in with a chance to win

Has my town been magically moved to the south of France without me noticing it? The sun was shining again, a lovely day when a light sweater was all that was needed to feel comfortable, but definitely not what you would call a heatwave. What did I see? A girl in a strapless boob tube type maxi dress (the type you throw on over a bikini) and flip flops, two young men parading about with no shirts on and a granddad who should have known better in very tight short shorts circa 1966, a long sleeve shirt and sandals with socks.  What happened to style?  Don't these people have mothers/girlfriends/significant others to give horrified gasps as they appear 'you CAN'T go out looking like that'....
Obviously they don't. I may have to adopt them, I will be the equivalent to Mother Theresa of Solihull, gathering up the style-disadvantaged, rehabilitating them and discharging them back into society looking like models for Ralph Lauren........

I'll be back tomorrow with some Easter eggs, see you then x 

Using Built-In Images Scan N Cut.....

Those of you who have 'known' me for a while will know that when it comes to die-cutters I don't do design. I was never really interested in Design Studio with the Cricut, the most I ever did was weld a few letters together to make a word. No, for me, the fun is looking at a shape, then doing my thing....I can spot a shape and remember that I have the perfect paper to go with it, or a sentiment will pop into my head. I don't think I will ever be a crafter who welds circles and triangles together to form fabulous lacy shapes, although I greatly admire those who can.

I am on a bit of a mission to see what cards I can create just using some of the basic built in shapes on the Scan N Cut - those of you with the Cricut or Cameo will be able to do something similar quite easily - as I say, pretty basic shapes. This one was inspired by some paper I found in a pack by Authentique on sale for a ridiculous price in Tuesday Morning, and despite my ban on buying any more papers until I have used up some of the ones I already have, for which several forests gave up their lives, I had to get it...... 

The machine, SEW and scissors were both cut with the SNC, I added some bakers twine around the reel and carried it down to the 'needle'. The scissors were painted with glossy accents. The sentiment is a random acrylic one that I chopped up before stamping to make room for the word SEW (I rather like this built in font by the way). The little dots on the machine were done with perfect pearls in pale pink

I hope you are all looking forward to a happy and peaceful Easter weekend. Me? We are going down to London to see some of our family - I better stock up on some chocolate eggs because I think there will be a Easter egg hunt with Max and Milo on Sunday morning before we head off for a lunch cooked by Alexandra. But today, I'm going to be back at my desk doing a bit of the crafty stuff....see you tomorrow x

How to re-stick your mats - and a giveaway

I promised you a peek at how I make my mats sticky again, this works for all die cutting mats - I have used it for years on Cricut and Cameo mats with no ill effects. There is no sticky on the parts of the mat that shouldn't be sticky, so no damage is done.

Firstly, give your mat a really good scrub with hot soapy water - this might revitalize it and you may not need to move onto the next step, but sometimes, they are beyond help.........leave it to dry before the next step

In which case, this is what you need. Some Aleenes Tack-It-Over-And-Over glue, a foam brush, a plastic container with a lid and a measuring spoon. I made up a solution with just 1/4 of a cup of glue and 1/4 of a cup of cold water.......

This makes quite a watery solution.......

Very carefully apply a thin layer of the solution to your mat, keeping within the cutting area - to make sure no glue has strayed onto the grid line markings, I use a damp kitchen towel to wipe down after applying the glue. Set aside to dry - it doesn't take long.....

When you are done, cover the solution with a lid, it will sit nicely until the next time....

You may find your mat is TOO sticky after this treatment. Pat it down with a lint free cloth like an old T shirt before using it. The sticky will last for a long time - much longer than the original stickiness! I found the glue in the adhesives aisle in Michaels, and I know it can be bought online in the UK

Here's a few cards I made very quickly using the Paper Boutique CD's from Polkadoodles, I was really just testing out how the machine would cut - it made quick work of it...... 

One cute feature on the CD is that you print out a back for your card - this is the back of the house...............

A quick little robot, I added a few metal bits and pieces, this will probably be a birthday card for Max who turns seven in May......

and a cute ladybird (I'm not quite sure what the orange patch is on the photo, it's not like that in real life!). I covered her with glossy accents.....

When we were spending half of the year in the USA, Nikky used to give me two copies of the new releases, so that I didn't have to lug them backwards and forwards across the Atlantic. So I found my second copy of Paper Boutique Vol 1, and even though it's been used, it's in perfect working order, and I'm happy to give it away to one of you. You don't need a Scan N Cut of course, a good old fashioned pair of scissors works just fine. Just leave your name under this post and I will draw a winner on Sunday, when I draw the other candy winners. Good luck, I'll see you tomorrow x

Using Scan N Cut with Crafting CD's

As some of you know, I was on the Polkadoodles design team right from the day Nikky Hall started the company, so I have a good pile of CD's, and I was eager to see how the SNC would deal with cutting out some of the digital elements. I chose one of the Paper Boutique CD's - full of templates just needing to be cut out and assembled. I haven't made any of these shaped cards for the longest time, but the machine made it a breeze.......

I had a lot of tiny flowers left over......

So I made this card, using one of the little pots from Katy Sue Designs. The scallop circles were very quickly cut with the machine as well.....

and as a designer, Nikky is very interested to see how the machine deals with tiny elements, so here you are Nikky, 1" butterflies from Sugar Birdies, cut out just for you - pretty cool antennae don't you think?

More cards from Paper Boutique tomorrow, and I have a giveaway as well. I totally fotgot to take photos of the re-sticking of mats, I'll do that tomorrow as well. See you then x

White on White - and cleaning SNC mats.....

One thing I don't like about the Scan N Cut is the quality of the mats, they seem quite flimsy and thin - and because the machine is capable of cutting chipboard or leather, you have to be really careful with your blade depth or it can slice straight through - which I have done in one spot on this mat, but I just put a piece of duct tape on the back. The stickiness is not very long lasting, but after years of using the Cricut and Silhouette, this isn't a problem. I'll show you tomorrow how I re-sticky them, but try this first - you really do need a good adhesion in these machines, or the paper/cardstock will move around and your cut will be ruined - so fill your sink with HOT soapy water, get out your dish scrubbing brush and start scrubbing. You can really put some elbow grease into it, and you'll be surprised at the muck that comes off. Rinse well and leave to dry. Hey presto, it dries nice and sticky again.  

My card today is made totally with cuts from the machine - they don't have a very inspiring built in library, but I have spotted a lot that I really like, and am going to make a few cards using the built in shapes. This one is pretty generic really, so you could make something similar using your Cricut or Silhouette. I cut two frames, one slightly smaller and ran them through the big shot - my mantra for white on white cards (which you know I love) is always dimension and texture. Raise up all your layers, add texture, otherwise it looks like a flat mess of white card......

the flower, banner and scroll were all from the shapes.....

So the sun is shining, spring is in the air, but it's still a bit on the cool side. But some intrepid Brits look out of the window, see the sun shining, and dig out the tee shirts, shorts and flip flops. Not a good look with goosebumps! It needs to be at least 10 degrees warmer before I take off my thermals....

See you tomorrow x

Scan N Cut Paper Patchwork......

It's my turn to post over on the Craftwork Cards blog today, pop over there to see what I've been up to....

I was intrigued by the quilting patterns on the Scan N Cut machine, and wanted to see how they would translate into backgrounds for cards, so out came my trusty sewing machine.........

I used the Kitsch collection, my other cards use my favourite colourway, the red and blue, for some reason I adore this.....

Call back tomorrow when I have a little giveaway for you - well, I couldn't bring all that craft stuff back and forget about you, could I? See you then x