Win a Pop-Up Cards Book

Pop-up cards seem to be all the rage at the moment, Provocraft have bought out two new pop- up card cartridges, and I was sent this book to review.......

Let me show you the card first, which was inspired by the book. You are given templates for all the shapes, but I decided to use the daisy from the Walk in my Garden cartridge, I cut six, all at 3" in white, then coloured the centres with a buttercup Promarker

For the inside of the card, I folded four flowers in half, then glued the right side of one, to the left side of another, and so on, until they were all glued together, then I used tape to stick the flower to the card, on the fold.............

I got the idea from this book

Pop-Up Cards

by

Jo Mathieson

published in the UK by New Holland Publishers

which is full of really imaginative ways to make fun pop-ups

As well as basic instructions, there are 19 cards to make, with clear step by step photos for each one

I liked this idea, the outside of the card looks like a wardrobe and on the inside she has made this cute pop-up with ties hanging from clothes hangers

So, if you want to explore the possibility of making some 3D cards, I have this book to giveaway, just leave a comment under this post, I will draw a winner on Sunday, 29th

Daisies and Scrolls

The inspiration for this card is totally down to the lovely Julie Hickey, head of the design team over at Craftwork Cards. I saw a card of hers at the NEC with a split centre, and couldn't wait to try it out.

I covered the front of a 6 x 6 card with paper from Wild Raspberry (K & Co), then chopped about 1 1/2" from the middle. The daisies are from the Walk in my garden cartridge, cut at 2" and layered, and the scroll is from storybook - one of the borders.

The sentiment was just cut from the paper 'happy days filled with summertime and you...........'

So I just joined the two halves together again with the scroll and daisies, it holds together surprisingly well. I coloured the pearls to match just by running a copic marker over them
Would you believe that it's snowing in Scotland and the north of England? Apparently we can look forward to arctic blasts of icy winds for the rest of the week. Hey weather, this is supposed to be Spring

I have been busy catching up with challenge and team cards, I am up to date now for this week, and feeling all virtuous.

Three Ribbons for Practical Scrappers

Just sharing with you one of the latest photos I have of Max and Milo, aren't they adorable in their matching PJ's? Look at the way Milo is gazing at his big brother

This week for Practical Scrappers, I was asked to use at least three ribbons. I used whitewash paper by core-dinations, made the base card from that and distressed the edges. The cuttlebug script folder was used for the centre panel, and again, rubbed with a emery board. The flower was from the walk in my garden cartridge, I cut three at 3", 2 1/2" and 2 1/4", and layered them with silicone glue. A little circle in the middle dotted with shimmer dots finished it off. The ribbons were just knotted together and glued to the card, I tried knotting them around the 'stem' and it just distorted it, so a glue dot came in handy. It's all very monotone, but I like it...

I really love this whitewash cardtock, I never liked the original black stuff, but this white is just gorgeous, this sheet is white, reversing to charcoal grey.
Guess what, my gypsy has arrived. I have managed to do all the computer stuff, and it is up and running. I will let you know what I think when I have had time to get used to using it. At the moment, it's a bit of a faff because I don't know what I am doing. The jury is out...................

Snail Belated Birthday for BBTB

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This week the design team were asked to use the snail cut from Walk In My Garden. I used Basic Grey papers again and added a liberal sprinkling of gems and rather wobbly sewing. The sentiment is from a dollar set by Inkadinkadoo. The twill ribbon is by Martha Stewart, and the pearl gems are by Papermania.

My day has been very lively so far, Max and I were breakfasting at 7.30, running around the garden at 8am, going for a walk at 8.30, picking up dozens of toys off the floor at 9.30, throwing them all down again at 9.35, all this by the time I am usually having my first coffee of the day. God certainly got the design right when he made it impossible for women of a certain age to have babies :)

Belated Birthday Card

Once again, the inspiration for this card came from a $1 set of clear stamps by Inkadinkadoo. I immediately thought of the snail from the Walk in my garden Cricut cartridge, and cut her (well, it must be a female snail in that pretty floral skin!) at 2 1/2" out of a pattern paper by Bo Bunny, then cut the shell from another pattern paper by Martha Stewart. It lacked definition so I cut a shadow in yellow and lots of white doodling. I popped some prima flowers on her antennae, with a small black button in the centre. My crafting friend Phyllis produced the googly eye with eyelashes (how cute), and she was ready to go.

Someone asked me what white pen I use for doodling? I find the Inkessentials pen fantastic, it's a very fine tip, and very white. Shows up very well on dark paper.

Off to a crop again tonight, down at Scrapbook Fanatics. I have a load of stuff to do at the moment, but tonight will be just for pleasure, I think I will get out my photos of Kiki and Max and make a page or two..............

Flowerpots - Walk in my Garden

This card was made using the border feature on the Walk in my Garden cartridge. The flower pots were run through the cuttlebug using the tiny mosaic folder. I quite like the colours on this one.

You will have noticed I haven't done my usual daily posting this past week, the reason being I had to return to the UK in a rush as my daughter was not well (getting better now). So everything has been incredibly hectic.

When I finally got my craft stuff out again, it was a fairly typical session for me. Stare blankly at the stuff on the table, decide to stamp an image, start colouring before the outline ink is dry, try again, get stazon ink on my new white top, get out my prismacolour pencils and remember that I have left the gamsol in the US. Remember that someone said you can use baby lotion, look at the resulting mess and think again - oh no! baby OIL not lotion - abandon stamping, have a cup of tea, stare blankly at the stuff on the table, get the cricut out, cut flowerpots out at 4" and discover that they are big enough to bath a baby in, have another cup of tea, do a bit more blank staring, cut again at a reasonable size, remember a cute saying stamp and spend half an hour going through my stuff looking for it before I remember it's in America. Finish the card - time for a gin and tonic.

For You Card - Walk in my Garden for BBTB

The designer brief this week was to use the card feature from the walk in my garden cartridge. I cut the base card in a glossy pale pink cardstock, backed it with black and white spotty paper, then cut the love lies bleeding to put as a spray on the side. The frame around the window was cut using stretch your imagination.

I used glossy accents on the flowers and the words, so this really is a shiny card!

If I Only Had Wings Card

This is for a challenge over on Papertakeweekly.
The challenge was to use flowers on a card. I stamped
a hero arts stamp in brilliance ink - cosmic copper - for a
background, then cut a butterfly at 3 1/2" from Walk in My Garden, in dark brown, stamped that all over in cosmic copper as well. I had a huge Heidi Swapp paper flower that I've never known what to do with, so I cut off two of the petals and turned them into butterfly wings. The saying is by Great Impressions. Added some primas to the stamped background.

Heard you caught a bug........

This is the cute little ladybug from Walk in my garden, cut at 2" and then again using the border feature. The scalloped squares are from mini monograms and the random stitching down the side is about as good as my sewing gets!