A Basket of Flowers

Here's one I made using the Nellie Snellen flower dies that I got from my pal Mandy of Scrappy-Go-Lucky. You get two punches, one punches out the flowers, then you put the die cut in another, and press, all the embossed lines and little raised centers on the flowers appear as if by magic. I'll take a photo of them and show them tomorrow. The basket, fence and scallop frame were cut with my Cricut (basket doodlecharms, scallop frame Elegant Edges, fence Bloom). I embossed the fence and basket with a woodgrain embossing folder. The flowers were cut in white, then I just sponged them lightly with faded jeans distress ink......

I have no idea what happened to the photos of the boys, they were there when I posted, then poof, gone - let's try again. First of all, Max and Milo, love the way Max is giving his little brother a hug....

and Monty, taken on his fourth birthday on Saturday.....

I am in serious list making and packing mode now (we leave on Saturday). Because we are sailing from the UK, with no flights and baggage restrictions to worry about, I may be going a bit overboard (unintentional pun). Do you think fourteen pairs of shoes/sandals and ten handbags may be a tiny bit excessive? The guidance given by P & O is that there is no limit on the number of cases we take, but that we should remember that they have to fit into the cabin...right....so the  packing frenzy means that we will probably be clambering over cases just to get to the loo, or into bed. That may not go down that well with Mike....better go and make another list....

See you tomorrow x

Funky Hand Challenge and BBTB2 Blog Hop

The start of the week, and a new month........ that means, first of all it's Funky Hand's monthly challenge. This month, Dolly set the challenge, and asked us to go all girly. I covered this box (bare box by Papermania) with papers from the Dreams Come True CD, after painting it with antique white acrylic paint.

I went a bit mad with the bow, it's got satin, organza, antique lace and pearls.............

the flowers are my favourite George cartridge flowers, layered up, and with some feathery fibers threaded through buttons. the ribbon on the top is raffia lace by Paper Cellar UK
Go HERE to take part in the challenge, and to see all the fab samples the design team have made. As usual, you have a whole month to join in, and the winner gets a £20 Funky Hand gift certificate (about $30)


Next, it's on to Bitten By The Bug2's monthly blog hop. This month over on the main blog, we are giving away a Sweethearts cricut cartridge and a gorgeous pack of SEI papers - donated by Joy and Melanie over at Holidays with the Cricut. Leave a comment, and become a follower of BBTB2, and you are in with a chance to win it
Our challenge was to use the cupcake from either Doodlecharms or Celebrations - mine is one of the celebration cakes. I used my gypsy to weld two cake shapes together at 5", then cut tw0 layers for the topping and cupcake holder. I cuttlebugged the icing, using the d'vine swirls folder, and doodled around the bottom. The cherry is from the Hello Kitty greetings cartridge, cut at 1 3/4". I drew some white highlights, and covered the whole thing with glossy accents



the sentiment is a clear sticker by Papermania UK. I added sequins with a gem in the middle to the 'icing'.




Here is what I am offering for the blog hop

A pack of 11 clear flower stamps by Making Memories
A pack of 32 pretty poppies diecut chipboard tags by Autumn Leaves
Two packs (red and blue) of zingz - raindrop type drops by fiskars





Just leave a comment below this post, and I will draw a winner on thursday at 9pm UK time

Good luck

Now you need to hop over to my pal Jeri's blog, to see what goodies she has for you, and to get the next link
Enjoy the hop

Teacher Card for Daring Cardmakers

This week's dare on Daring cardmakers is 'School' - I was going to give it a miss, when I suddenly had a light bulb moment and decided to make a teacher card that Kiki can give to her teacher at the end of term.

I welded the apple from doodlecharms on my gypsy to form the base card - cut at 6", then cut the apple again in the red spots and plain green

I found some script paper and graph paper and thought they would look good. I had already coloured Tilda - I do that occasionally, have an evening of colouring in images in front of the TV with my feet up, then they are ready to go
Apple shaped card - Doodlecharms cartridge, gypsy, cricut machine
Red spotty paper - DCWV
Graph and script paper - WeR Memory Keepers
#1 lettering - Papermania
Teacher lettering - tiny alphas by Making Memories
Tilda stamp by Magnolia

I have had an incredibly busy weekend, putting the house back to rights after the decorator had finished, now everything is gleaming, and I am basking in a glow of self satisfaction at being such a perfect housewife - dust bunnies vanished until the next time the decorator comes :)

Advent Box

I have been having a lot of fun making this little advent box out of matchboxes for Kiki. I made a few mistakes, but I have got the hang of it now and will try to do a tutorial for the blog

Santa is cut from Doodlecharms at 3", I gave the first one some eyebrows, he looked so fierce he would have frightened a child, so I had to start again

The best fun was finding stuff small enough to fit into the matchboxes. So I bought sparkly little bracelets and necklace, hair clips and scrunchies, tiny m & m's, and some (UK) pound coins and 50 pence pieces that I soaked in pepsi cola for an hour to get them sparkling and new looking
There are 24 little drawers, so one for every day up to Christmas day, with a little treat in each drawer

It has to travel to the UK, so I hope it arrives intact and that she loves it as much as I loved making it

Sneek Peek at a Papercraft Inspirations Card

Here's a peek at one of the cards in this month's edition of Papercraft Inspirations. The commission was to make a male card, using fruit. I used left over letter stickers for the word 'husband', and the papers are by making memories. Plain and simple, it was for the Quick Cards section of the magazine.

I have been busy with a couple of commissions, a word book with the letters spelling out FAMILY, and by golly, it's taken me forever to do. I can't photograph it as it's full of someone else's photos, you will just have to take my word for it that it looks quite good.

Doodlecharms Dragonflies for BBTB

We were asked to use any cut from the doodlecharms cartridge this week, using the border feature. I chose the dragonflies - I was in the mood for 'pretty' when I made the card. I cut twice at 2 1/2", once on plain white cardstock, then again on white vellum, which I ran through the cuttlebug using swiss dots. I added dots of liquid pearls and a huge ribbon bow. The 'top note' cut was done with my die from go-kreate, love this die. I used the leafy embossing folder for this, and distressed all the edges in pale pink chalk ink.

This week we are having a bit of a blog hop, for everyone of you who leaves a comment on this post, you will be in with a chance to win.............................................................

two packs of yummy ribbons from Fancy Pants and Making Memories, and an SEI 'Friend' word book, which would make a fabulous birthday card for a special friend. The ribbons are a variety of chenille, velvet, rickrack................ooh, I do love ribbon. So leave a comment, making sure you leave your name so that I can identify you when I draw the winner next sunday. Then hop over to Carole's blog and see what she is offering, then follow her links to the next BBTB DT member who is offering candy. If you hop around to all the blogs you will have a good chance of winning yummy candy. Be patient today though, as we all live in different time zones and it may take a while for us all to get on board with this
All the designs can be seen on the Bitten by the Bug site

Easter Bunny for BBTB

We were asked to make a card using the bunny from Doodlecharms this week. I cut him at 4" and stamped his face using a peachy keen stamp from the New Arrivals animal faces set. I cut very thin slivers of black to make his whiskers, and added some chalk and doodling for emphasis.

I cut the eggs from the same cartridge, and used the egg shapes trimmed to make his paws (do rabbits have paws or feet? Whatever)

The basket was also cut from Doodlecharms, and run through the cuttlebug to emboss it, then coloured with copic pens. The sentiment is from a set of printable downloads from the Cutting Cafe, the scalloped circle was cut with my nestabilities die.

As you read this I will hopefully be at 33,000 feet over the Atlantic, winging my way back to Florida. I am taking with me a load of stamped images, my pens and pencils, in my hand luggage, to while away the tedium of a long flight. I do get the feeling that the cabin crew look very oddly at me, I suppose I look like an adult version of a child with a colouring book, which I suppose I am really.........

Valentines for the children - Scroll down for Blog Candy

This is my valentine for Kiki, which I did for the Bitten by the Bug DT challenge this week, which was to use the heart from Doodlecharms. I cut the heart twice, once at 4" in black with the scallops, then at 3 3/4" in plain peach. The elephant image is some clip art that I downloaded from the internet. I handwrote 'never forget, never forget' all the way round the heart, the word Ma is from a thickers foam alphabet, loves you are rub ons (heidi by making memories). My grandchildren call me Ma by the way. I love it, hearing their little voices calling 'Ma' when they see me is one of the great joys of my life.

Now I am not saying that Max is a little monster, but this is his card. I used the monster card off the wildcard cartridge, frankly it doesn't look much like a monster to me, more like a squared off tellytubbie, but as he's only 20 months old he will probably rip it up if he's allowed to, although my daughter in law puts all the cards I make for him into his memory box.

Sweet Birthday - Doodlecharms

This was made using a mixture of the new sweet stack by DCWV, and the gorgeous Martha Steward double sided paper that I found in Walmart of all places. The cupcake was cut from Doodlecharms at 4" the black paper underneath is the new magic paper, that when you tear it, shows a coloured core. Well it's new to me, you have all probably been using it for yonks, I was never a trend setter! The sentiment is from a clear set by Inkadinkadoo. The square scallops used the square nestabilities that I have been sent to try for a month by Cropstop. They are sending various tools to the design team to try out, and this is my first attempt. Hop over there, the forum is up and running now as well as a gallery with some great work for you to browse.

So this is my offering for this week's challenge over at Cute Card Thursday, the challenge being food. What nicer food is there in the world than a yummy cupcake.......................... The photo looks small today for some reason, click on it for a bigger view.

Hope Your Day Shines

I love the sunshiny colours on this card - as I write this looking at rain pouring down outside, it cheers me.

I cut the sun from doodlecharms in orange spotty paper. then on blackout in pale yellow. I wrapped orange organdy ribbon around the whole thing and finished off with a bow and some prima flowers.

I am flying to Spain in the morning -
have you ever travelled light on holiday? We are flying with a charter company, so don't have much baggage allowance, I could use it all up just on shoes. So I am being very organised, which means piling clothes on the spare bed in neat little stacks, which keep growing...and growing.... as they grow I mutter to myself 'I can do without this' and take one strappy little top which weighs about 1oz off the pile and replace with a pair of bronze leather sandals that weigh 2lbs.
I am always fascinated by those articles in magazines where they kit you up for a three week stay in a 5* hotel with just a swimsuit and a sarong, which you deftly twist into an evening dress, a skirt, a top (and probably a dressing gown), you then slip a witty giant flower into your hair and are supposed to look fabulous for the whole three weeks. Funny, it doesn't work like that for me, the sarong would come untwisted in the middle of the dance floor revealing vast areas of sunburn, and the flower would fall wittily out of my hair after five minutes.

Wedding/Anniversary Card

So for some reason I fancied making quite an elaborate glitzy sort of card and made this one, which could be used as a wedding or anniversary card. Don't ask me what dragonflies have to do with love and marriage, I don't know, just liked the cut!

I made a base card in white, 5" square and ran it through the cuttlebug using the textile folder. The gold frame was cut from mirri card, also at 5" using the stretch your imagination cartridge, and then I trimmed a sliver from each side of the inside square of gold, before adhering it to the centre of the card. The dragonfly (from doodlecharms) was cut twice from pearl vellum, and the body in white card. Ran the vellum through the cuttlebug, divine swirls folder and swiped an embossing pad over it, then brushed it with gold perfect pearls. I stamped the body with a swirly stamp and again applied perfect pearls. Finally the hearts were cut in white, then gold from the wedding cartridge.

Owl Card and Watermelon Card

These cards were made with more fabulous papers from my Funky Hand CD's. The little owl was cut from Happily Ever After at 5" in two coordinating colours, and then stitched - yes, the sewing machine has been changed for a new one. The watermelon was cut from two pattern papers from doodlecharms at 5"