Paisley Purse for BBTB2

The challenge over on BBTB2 today is to use one of the handbags from the Paisley cartridge. Well since I have had such a hectic weekend, it was lucky that I had this one already in the bag so to speak....it's one of the cards from this month's Papercraft Inspirations quick cards.

The base card is 6 x 6, the bag was cut at 5" and run through the cuttlebug. Spotty paper is Making Memories, and I added a few beads threaded onto silver wire

Be sure to pop over to BBTB2 to see what the team did with the challenge, and join in with the blog hop

Well I had a blast at the NEC on Saturday. I started the day by meeting up with Lou (LoopyLou), Kat and Nikki from the Cricut message board for a coffee and a giggle. Whilst I was waiting to meet them, there was a rather bizzare line of Star Wars characters walking around - stormtroopers, Darth Vader, Chew Bacca, the lot really. Turns out there was a Memorobilia exhibition in another hall.

So I was standing next to two elderly ladies who were looking a bit bemused

"what are they supposed to be Mary?"

"Don't know. Don't think it's anything to do with making cards though"

long, long silence..........................................

"They look a bit uncomfortable to me"

Well yes, I don't suppose clanking around in white plastic armour all day is the most comfortable job in the world - so here I am cheering up one of the stormtroopers.................

After that, it was downhill all the way, I met up with my blog buddies Kath, Carol, Lynda and Dawny (Pink Piggy) who seemed to know everyone in the place, we meandered along to the pub and spent most of the morning there chatting and laughing, a bit of shopping, then back to the pub................and so the day went on. I met Jacqui (Cat's Whiskers blog), Kim Piggot, the lovely peeps over at Craftwork Cards, .............oh it was all so much fun. Kath was staying with us for the night, so in the evening Lynda and Mark joined us for a curry and Kath and I stayed up gassing until 3am.......................
So it was lovely, thank you all so much for your company, fun and a lot of laughs.

Pagoda Anniversary Card and some blog candy

The winners will be drawn by random.org on Wednesday 17th February at 9am UK time

Here's my card today over on Holidays with the Cricut - lots of 'how to do it' photos over there, and as before, all you have to do is leave a comment to be in with a chance of winning a serenade or sentimentals cartridge

To celebrate my week over there, I am giving away some blog candy, stuff I have used for the cards and projects that aren't available in the USA/Canada. But first, I must give something to my UK buddies, so I have a spare Martha Stewart heart punch, I bought it home with me from the USA, forgetting I already have one. Plus a brand new unmounted stamp set from Stampin Up called Ladybug Picnic. I'll pop in a few of the jewelled flower picks as well. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, and link it on your blog if you have one.
Don't forget to put UK by your name......

For my USA/Canadian friends, (if you live elsewhere in the world, just say which candy you would like to win) here's a package of some of the craft goodies from the UK. You will get

10 sheets of the silver pattern vellum I used today

2 packs of papermania embossed cards and envelopes

A roll of the raffia ribbon by Paper Cellar (on one of todays cards)

6 scallop cards and envelopes (the square ones, see card three below)

3 sheets of craftwork card sentiment buttons (see card three below)

some of the gold and silver jewelled flower picks I used today

A pack of clear rubber stamps by Papermania - Birthday Boy

Papermania tiny spotty buttons in shades of yellow (perfect for Easter Cards)

a sheet of Anita 'handmade by' gold stickers to put on your cards

A pack of Papermania papers in the colours of the buttons (as used on the sunflower card below)

(half of this stuff isn't in the photo, you will have to imagine it as I am camera-less)

close up of the vellum



here's the second card, using the same design layout


and a third one................




and here's one I made with one of the 'buttons' from the Paisley cartridge. I was puzzled as to the purpose of this feature, as only a couple of the cuts seem to be buttons, but now I have had a good look around, it's just another word for icon, and there are some fabulous cuts on there. I thought this flower looked like a sunflower, and cut it BIG at 4". The card is 8" x 4", and the papers are by Papermania.




dotted s0me gems around.....................








the sentiment is Hero Arts, stamped with memento rust ink. The ribbon is a brown felt I picked up from the dollar bin in Michaels





So there you go - leave your name to enter for the blog candy. I will keep this post at the top for a week, and draw the names next wednesday, noon UK time.
Don't forget to tell me which country you are from, and enough information for me to identify you if you win (your message board name, or email for instance)
Good luck
See you tomorrow x

Girlie girlie card

The papers for this one are really pretty aren't they? I love bag and shoe cards for girlfriends. This one is another Papercraft Inspirations magazine card..............................

I like using this cuttlebug folder for shoes, really makes them look like snakeskin

Papers K & co

Shoes - Cricut Wedding solutions cartridge cut at 3"

Purse - Paisley Cricut cartridge cut at 4"

Tiny sentiment - clear Papermania sticker stuck onto pink card

Martha Stewart floral lace border punch

Inking - colourbox bronze cats eye

We have to strip the kitchen of furniture tomorrow - the decorator arrives on monday morning. I like the idea of having it all sparkling and fresh, hate the process you have to go through to get there. A decorator is a better option than us doing it ourselves, we have learnt that joint decorating in our case is a straight swift road to marital disharmony - so better not to go there! Mike is thorough, painstaking and slow, I am slapdash, messy and hasty. I end up covered in paint, Mike never has the tiniest spot on him (unless he gets too close to my paint brush). Funny how I can painstakingly spend hours on getting a single card just right, and yet have so little patience when it comes to walls doors and ceilings

Another teen card

Here's another Paisley cartridge card. The background papers are from the DCWV generation stack, and I punched a square with one of the new Martha Stewart punches, then chopped the square in half. I cut some tiny notes out of the background paper to put on the screen

How do you like my stitching? It's pretend - I couldn't be bothered to thread the machine, and just ran the empty needle in a herringbone stitch over the cardstock, then drew in the stitch lines. It looks okay - laziness sometimes pays dividends!

I added some rain drop bling to the earphones and a metal dot on the Ipod control.
Cricut cartridge - Paisley. Ipod cut at 4"
papers - Generation stack by DCWV
tiny letters - Making Memories
2U letters - Papermania

After my jokey comment about bugs and the doctor's surgery, it is now apparent that I DID pick up something, so I am achey, coughing and sneezing, I would be healthier if I had stayed at home. Talk about ironic.......................

Paisley Teenager Card - and a Sneaky Peek

Here's a sneaky peek at one of the cards I made from the new Funky Hand CD, Dreams Come True, which is on preorder now on the website, and will be premiered on Create and Craft TV on Saturday 16th January at 12.00, and again on Ideal World TV on Friday 22nd January at 2 p.m

The design team have been beavering away to get the samples done, and boy, you are in for a treat, the CD is full of wonderful papers, word books and extras. Don't forget, if you live outside the UK, shipping is free to anywhere in the world

I will be showing a sneaky peek every day, and will show the whole cards on Saturday morning

At last I found time to play with my new Paisley cartridge, this one is full of girlie images, just what I wanted, but in fact this card would do for a teen boy as well. The colours were determined by the background paper, which I couldn't resist when I saw it - DCWV Generation

The phone was cut at 3 1/2", and the letters were cut with george, at 2". I used red mirri card, very unlike me, but some of the words on the background are red foil, so it seemed to go. I used some black metal shiny dots (Jo-annes) as an accent

Sad person that I am, I had to google to see how teenagers would wish each other happy birthday in a text!!!

I used this particular cuttlebug embossing folder because I think it has quite a strong tech-design sort of feel, it looks like those metal floors you get in trendy loft conversions

You must hop over to one of my Polkadoodles teamies, Brenda's blog, she is organising this blog hop, it sounds like a lot of fun




I promised a photo of my copic storage, here it is.........................works perfectly, and spins round with the flick of a finger




That's it for today, back to the drawing board now, I am working on some magazine stuff, I have done my thinking and planning and am now ready to start seeing if the ideas work out on paper
See you tomorrow x

There Can Only Be One Queen .....................

I found this great stamp in the dollar bin at Michaels, and knew straightaway what I was going to do with it, the cat was cut from the Paisley cartridge, all the papers are DCWV. I thought it would make a great card for a cat lover

I added a few white highlights to make her pop..............

I have finished all the word books/wedding albums/exploding boxes etc that I am doing for peeps back in the UK, as I tied the final ribbon it suddenly occured to me that I now have to pack all these things into my already overweight bags as well. Shipping to the UK is so expensive, but I may be forced to go down that route

Mike has just been browsing the local paper, where there is a obituary for a chap who was known to everyone as NASTY. What a nickname to carry through life, it seems almost cruel that it follows him in death (rather funny though, he is obviously a great loss to the human race............), still, nasty or not, someone loved him enough to put it in the paper. The local paper here is a great source of mirth between us every morning, I think my favourite, which I have probably written about before has to be the side by side burial plots that were being offered for sale, in a lovely spot, overlooking a lake. Reason for sale - Divorce!!

Mike's all time favourite was the anguished plea for a lost cat, black and white, looks like a cow

I the meantime, I have my last crafty get together today, so cheerio for now, off to play