Some winners - and a monkey!

 I first created this little chap for a magazine commission, and was asked to use a 'sorry sentiment'. I really liked the way he turned out, so decided to reproduce him, this time with a happy little face.....

All the shapes were cut with my Cricut and George cartridge - it's my default cartridge and lives permanently in my machine, ready to churn out circles and hearts... I gave his some rosy cheeks with chalk. The spiky fur on top of his head was handcut and stuck on to the back of his face with a glue dot

The card is 6 x 6 and the sizes of the shapes are:
3 1/2" circle for face
4" oval
2 1/2" heart
2 x 1 1/4" circles for ears
4 x 1" circles for ears and eyes
I used a tiny circle punch for the pupils of the eyes

Now for some winners. The two randomly drawn winners are:

Bonbon Belles double CD - Guida Machado

Halloween download - Andrene

Congrats to you both, email me with your address/email address and I will got your prize in the mail.

See you tomorrow with some snail mail.....

Embossing borders....

 When I was having a much needed tidy up of my craft stuff I found some of those narrow embossing folders, the ones that make borders. I have loads of them, and realized that I have never used one. So, I am making a resolution to use some of the stuff that I have and made a couple of cards. The first one uses a star border - I embossed it three times, and cut into strips, then mounted it onto a navy panel. The stars were cut from the George cartridge on my Cricut, and the sentiment is a Studio G wood mounted dollar stamp.....

While I had all the red white and navy stuff out, I made this next card for Max, who will be six next month. His bedroom is decorated in these colours, and he loves things that match! I used a numbers border strip, and highlighted the six with a silhouette circle, also from George....... The red panel was the negative from the superstar card above, I just stuck it onto the navy background, then cut some slightly smaller white stars and popped them on with foam pads....

So I feel virtuous, using up scraps, using unloved supplies...is this a new trend? Maybe I will try the exercise again soon

Three year old Milo was waiting with his mum for Max to finish his mini rugby class - 'I want to go home' he cried 'my legs are getting bored'

See you tomorrow x

Christmas IS coming........

Well, an interesting couple of days here - the laptop continues to be stubborn and   

I can't upload, so the Letraset giveaway will have to wait until next week - worth waiting for though. It's going to be repaired tomorrow, so I will be back in business

In the meantime, here's a Christmas card I made before leaving home, the circle card was cut with Wild Card on the Cricut, I cut another card in white and then snipped a random wavy line so that it looks like sauce on the pudding. The mice were made with circles and ovals from the George cartridge, holly leaves from Christmas Cheer. Mice faces are from Peachy Keen

On a Thursday, I go to meet up with my craft group, and always call them before I leave home to see who wants coffee from Dunkin Donuts. Armed with the list, I go to the drive through. I must stop doing that and go inside, the order is always unrecognizable as the one I gave. A large iced caramel latte, a large hot caramel latte and an iced coffee with cream morphed in a mysterious way into three small hot coffees with no cream. Even when I am face to face with them, as soon as I open my mouth a puzzled look of incomprehension crosses their youthful faces. Now I don't have a strong regional accent, I just speak the Queens English! I found myself yesterday trying to speak in a fake American accent just to make myself understood. I am not sure what part of America I originated from, but it sounded like 'a caarmel cwowffee, iced cwowffee with crem, hod caarmel ladde'. No, they didn't understand that either, sigh, back to speaking very very slowly with a 'watch my lips' look on my face.........

Kiki's Birthday Card

Kiki will be eight in a couple of weeks, so whilst I was exploring the new Wild Card 2 cartridge, I decided to make her a cake! I embossed the icing layer the wrong way round (by mistake), so the swirls are debossed rather than embossed, but as the rest is raised, there is plenty of texture which is what I wanted. The little 'yummy birthday' tag is a clear sentiment from Papermania, I spelt her name using Making Memories rub on letters, and the glittered number 8 was cut from the George cartridge

I am giving her a birthday treat this year, we are going together into London, we'll have dinner (how grown up!) and I have bought tickets for the evening performance of Matilda the musical. I KNOW she will love it!


I have to say it................................

GO TEAM GB!

 
I hope the Olympics rekindles our national pride wherever in the world we live, and I am sure we will see some amazing feats of endurance, skill and bravery over the next few weeks. Be sure to watch the opening ceremony tonight at 9 PM (4 PM EST), I have a very special reason for watching but I can't share until tomorrow

Was it good for you?

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas - I certainly did, Santa brought me an iPad which I had been lusting after for ages, and Boxing Day saw the arrival of Max and Milo who kept us entertained and very amused. Photos to follow!

Here's a couple more cards made with the fabulous Kraft with Colour collection from Craftwork Cards - be sure to hop over there, they have a sale on at the moment

For this first one, I used one of the blank chipboard pieces in the pack, dry brushed it with white acrylic paint, and overstamped with the music note stamp. The heart was cut with the George cartridge

and on this second card, I punched holes to thread with ribbon through some of the circles intended to take the circular greetings, and used them as a border. The tiny flowers on the bottom were punched

The fridge is full of leftovers, lovingly wrapped in clingfilm or foil. They will sit there for about three days, and then get chucked out if past experience is anything to go by. I should shorten the process and chuck it out straightaway, but that seems so much more wasteful than the three day later rule! All those recipes for tasty turkey curry/turkey and ham pie/turkey soup/turkey stew, all seem to be a turkey too far for me, so, with a guilty conscience I do the turkey fling.... 

Grandad

Here's another grandparent card that I made for this month's Papercraft Inspirations magazine. I really like the use of corrugated card on this one. The letter stickers are by Making Memories. The star was cut from the George cartridge at 3"

I have a lot to do today, some of it involves boring stuff like sorting out mail, some of it is more exciting like making some cards with Funky Hand's new CD Colour Me Happy. I am not very disciplined, I will throw myself into the cardmaking, and tonight as I climb into bed I will think 'oh bummer, didn't sort out the correspondence again......never mind, I'll do it tomorrow'. Then the whole cycle will start again tomorrow

Two Sneak Peeks......

Firstly here is a sneak peek at one of the two cards I made using the border feature on the Wall Decor cartridge for Scrappy-Go-Lucky - pop over there to see the full cards

and here's a peek at one of the four cards that were a commission for Papercraft Inspirations magazine this month, I was asked to make four cards suitable to give to grandparents

The tiny flowers are 'waste' from a Martha Stewart border punch, and the leaves are a sissix die
the sentiment was computer generated

A short post from me today as we are in London, too busy with the grandchildren to ramble on in my usual fashion

Lace.....Real, Paper and Felt

I was tidying up the picture folder on our desktop computer today (I normally use the laptop) and realise that I never shared these with you. They are part of my very first magazine commission for Papercraft Inspirations magazine, published in September 2008. They asked me to produce some cards and an altered book, all using felt lace, paper lace and real stuff.

This first card is a gatefold that I covered with KI Memories felt lace, which I dotted with jewels. The flower was cut from George on silhouette, and backed with a crunchy real lace. I cut one of the flowers from the felt lace for the centre

This baby card uses paper lace, the sort that comes in 12 x 12 sheets, and I found some adorable broderie anglaise pink gingham lace which I cut out to decorate the card. I found out that tall thin cards don't photograph well, I never use them for magazines now unless they specify tall/thin
Here is the altered book, it was a cheap notebook from the $ bin in Michaels. I looked for one with a plain cover and a black wire, then covered the front in the black spotty paper. It was just like being back at school, they used to make us cover our text books at the start of every term. I found some wide crunchy lace and threaded pink ribbon through it, and added three die cut (george, cricut) flowers, with button centres and lace tails.

It was strange finding these photos, I had forgotten all about my first commission, I think I made them in June 2008. Would I do the same again today for the same commission? Actually, I think I probably would, my brief was to make pretty, fancy, cards and I think these fitted the bill. So there you go, a stroll down memory lane with me today

Getting All Poetical...............

First of all a Craftwork Cards card, all the supplies used are from them, including that lovely scalloped frame. The flowers were cut using the george cartridge and the cricut, and the 'brads' are paper card candy - I find them so useful

I thought you would all - especially those of you from overseas - like to see what our town looks like in the spring. It reminds me of Wordsworth's 'I wandered lonely as a cloud............' or Robert Browning's 'Oh to be in England now that April's there............................

Some years ago a local businessman planted some daffodils on the verges of the approach roads to the town, they have been added to and multiplied over the years, and now, if you are driving into Solihull you are met with the glorious sight of a sea of gold. They are late this year because of the long cold winter we have had, but I am so glad they decided to show their colours before we leave the UK for a while. It always generates a surge of civic pride in me to see the town looking so pretty.

Back with more tomorrow....

A Star is Born - for BBTB2

On Bitten By The Bug2 this week, Carla set the challenge, and asked us to use the delivery cut from the New Arrival cartridge

I used a 6 x 6 scalloped card base from Craftwork Cards, and embossed it with my new 5 x 5 dots embossing folder - how I wish they had made it 6 x 6! I cut a strip of pattern paper (DCWV) for the edge, and popped another smaller embossed scallop strip onto that, wrapped with ribbon. The star was cut from George at 4", and the baby at 3". The baby face is a stamp by Peachy Keen, and I used copics to give her a bit of colour. Lettering is tiny alphas by Making Memories

I scribbled on the star with a quickie glue pen and sprinkled with glamour dust
If you enjoy a challenge, why not join in this week at BBTB2? We love seeing all the creations.

I think it's a back-to-work day in the USA today, here in the UK we have a bank holiday. Easter monday is the first bank holiday of the year after new year, so a whole lot of events are arranged, the motorways come to a standstill with everyone out and about...............me? I'm staying home and finishing off the babies first birthday cards.
See you tomorrow

Two Max Cards.............

Two 'Max' cards today, this first one is for his third birthday, which falls in May while we are away. the monkey and papers are all from the Paper Boutique CD by Polkadoodles. Needless to say, the sentiment is perfect for him, he's as lively as a cartload of monkeys!

With this CD, you just type in the sentiment you want on a tag and print it out, so great for personalised cards......

This second one is Max by default. It is another Papercraft Inspirations quick card, I was asked to make a birth announcement, the cork letter stickers were perfect for the job, but this was the only name I could make from the remnants I had............ well, there is always an X left over isn't there?
I cut a 4" circle out using my george cartridge and cricut machine, and cut away 1/4 of this to form the pram shape. Two 1" circles for the wheels, a strip of punched border and a hand doodled scroll for the handle. All the gorgeous papers are from the Dreams Come True CD from Funky Hand
I haven't been very productive this week, I have a very sore inflammed eye, and have been given strict orders to rest it. How can I rest it? Everything I like to do involves using my eyes. I might have to resort to a pirate-like patch, I could alter it with sequins or something to make it a bit more attractive, I might even start a new fashion trend, although that is very unlikely.

Happy Easter for Papercraft Inspirations

Here's a sneeky peek at one of the cards I did for this months Papercraft Inspirations magazine, on sale now in the UK. I was asked to do a quick Easter card and came up with this

Thi circles and ovals were cut with my Cricut (george cartridge), the flowers were doodled freehand onto some pink spotty paper (making memories), and I gave him a spotty ear as well. Some more doodling, a cotton ball for his tail and there you go......quick and easy. The sentiment is a stamp by Great Impressions

I have had a major blog fest here, catching up on visiting everyone, and clearing my emails - it was a bit of a marathon I can tell you, but now I feel all virtuous and almost ready to tackle the pile of filing that needs doing. Mike and I have very different attitudes to this chore - he would let the pile reach the size of a small mountain, then painstakingly file it, page by page, all in it's proper place and in chronological order. Me? Well the pile of papers drives me mad, so I quickly and haphazardly shove them into the drawer, so that when the car needs insuring, you are quite likely to find the paperwork in with the water bills. Which explains why I found a pile of papers tucked under a chair. 'I hid them' he said simply 'so that you wouldn't file them'. Oh goody, that's another job ticked off my list then.......

Girlie Card for Polkadoodles

So Nikky, the boss lady over on Polkadoodles, who likes to set a fiendish challenge, asked us to make a girlie card using only the Just for Men CD. Ha, it was easy Nikky, I used the very pretty blue papers and sentiment, added a martha punch border and a bit of ribbon. The flowers are cut from the George cartridge on my cricut

I doodled on them in white, then covered them in glossy accents so they look like black patent leather, oops, missed a bit
I went to the post office yesterday, to mail some parcels and cards to the UK. Normally a visit there is quite an uplifting experience when lovely chatty helpful Jim serves me, but he was not there, so a chap I had never seen before served me. The parcels were no problem, the cards were another matter. "What's in these" he enquired, shaking the envelopes suspiciously, as if he suspected I might have a terrorist or two hidden away in there. "Cards" I replied meekly. "CARDS!" he yelled "HEY BUDDY (or Buster, or Hank or whatever his sidekick was called) LOOK AT THESE, THEY'RE CARDS, KINDA BULKY" "YEAH" yelled Buddy/buster/whatever - "SQUARE TOO, EXTRA FOR THOSE. TRY THE SLOT". I don't know why they were yelling, they were standing right next to each other. So my sweet mailman friend, the one with the phobia about square, bulky envelopes, tried determinedly to shove the envelopes through a little slot thingy, beloved of postal services the world over. Of course, they wouldn't fit. "EXTRA CHARGES" he yelled in a satisfied tone. I pointed out that the envelopes would not actually be going through a slot until they reached the UK, by which time it would be the Royal Mail's problem. "Rules are rules" he shrugged. Yes, and foam pads on handmade cards are foam pads.............................

Just for You

I made this card using Que Sera papers from K & co. I cut the stars from acetate, using george cartridge and edged them with a copper krylon pen

the button is a martha stewart button punch, it has a lovely embossed edge and is really useful if you want a perfectly matching button. The centre flower was cut out and popped up. Oh, I see a bit of fraying ribbon going on here, must fix that. If you run the edge of a ribbon along a glue stick, when the glue is dry it prevents fraying, a trick which I clearly forgot to do here
the little sentiment is by hero arts

We seem to be having a plague of insects here, it has been very very wet for two weeks (it feels like two years), and humidity is high for the UK, so I think all the bugs have been lying around feeling soggy and miserable, saying to each other, what shall we do today, it's a bit wet to go flying around. I know, let's procreate....... and procreate they have. My daughter in law is on holiday in Norfolk, and every time they go out there are MILLIONS of ladybirds flying around. I think the ladybirds would be preferable to the rather grotesque flying ants that decided they liked me yesterday. So there I was, sitting in the sun, having a cappuchino and a browse of the paper, when PLOP, something fell into the coffee, followed by PLOP, PLOP PLOP - soon the coffee was full of these horrible things. They got bored with that and decided that my hair would be a good place to shelter..............ladybird ladybird fly away home (and that applies to you horrible ants as well)

Remember Pacman?

and the inside, gobbling up some happy birthday balls

Remember pacman? One of the earliest gameboy games, that little yellow ball that used to gobble all the other balls up? It's my son's birthday on friday. He works for one of the big computer games companies so I thought this card would be fun. I cut the circles out with my george cartridge, and the dark grey frame around the edge of the card was done with the stretch your imagination cartridge. I covered the front of the card with a dull silver paper (DCWV) and added some buttons for the 'controls'. I know it looks like a kids card, but he is still a bit of a kid at heart. At least he will know I made it just for him.

I am not surprised he ended up in that industry, he certainly spent enough time practising when he was a kid. One Christmas, he was desperate for a gameboy, which we bought and wrapped, hiding it away in a cupboard. On Christmas morning, he proceeded to astound us with his dexterity and skill. Many years later, he confessed that he had 'found' the parcel (i.e. spent hours looking for the parcel), then carefully opened the packaging and removed his prize. He did this at every opportunity until Christmas day, by which time he was, of course, an expert.

George Flower for BBTB and Pink and Green for Cute Daisy May/Daring Cardmakers

This week on Bitten By The Bug there is a new contest sponsored by Shortcuts - be sure to pop over there to get the details. We were asked to use the flower from George, and I was sent some acetate to use. The papers are from the Que Sera Sera range by K & Co. I cut the large flower at 3", first in paper, then in acetate and added a sentiment circle and some metallic thread. I ran around the edges of the acetate flower with a krylon pen, then cut three similar little flowers at 1".

The challenge on Cute Daisy May this week is Pink and Green, the label shapes were cut with my Go-Kreate dies and the image was coloured with copic markers. This fits in nicely with the dare on daring cardmakers, which is Weather.

Hip Hippo Ray

This is a card I made for this month's Papercraft Inspirations magazine, there are four of mine in there. The brief was to make a new baby card using cute animals, so I made the mummy and baby hippo with george and the cricut (sounds like a seventies rock group, George and the Cricuts Yeah!), cutting out a series of circles and ovals. The papers are from DCWV Baby Girl stack, the sentiment is studio G, the inside sentiment reads Hip Hippo Ray I know, corny, but cute). I doodled the hippo faces, used black dots for the noses and eyes, and inked all the edges with colorbok bronze cat's eye ink pad. The magazine is on sale now in the UK, February in the USA and Canada.

A Funky Christmas Tree

This is for James, my elder son, who is my biggest critic! He 'doesn't do cute' and really finds most of my cards fall into that category - the boy has no taste, I blame his father. Anyway, this card might just merit a nod of approval, no bling, no cute hedgehogs or snowmen, and not a bit of glitter in sight!

I cut two 6 x 6" sheets of Basic Grey 'wassail' paper into 1" triangles using the george cartridge, then starting at the top of the card and using foam pop-dots on each triangle, worked my way down the card, adding an extra triangle to each row, and overlapping them so that there were no spaces. The little circles are epoxy brads that came in a pack of SEI paper, and the sentiment is by (who else) Studio G. The trunk of the tree is the border that was left after cutting out the triangles. Quite a lot of inking (color box moss green) in an attempt to make him think his mother is arty.

Elegant Thank You Card

I made this for the Caardvarks challenge, which this week is being sponsored by Cropstop, so a yummy prize up for grabs there. The challenge was to use a diecut, nice and simple! The flower was cut at 3" from George, then I cut a plain circle to stamp the sentiment on, I used a foam stamp that I got free with a magazine for the thanks circle words. Popped a prima flower in the centre, and ran the lime flower through the cuttlebug (swiss dots folder) The green strips at each side were cut using a Martha Stewart punch, and I added strips of real lace as well. I do like gatefold cards, and now that I have a score-pal they're even easier. This one is 6" square, so you cut your 12 x 12 card to 6", then score it at 3" from each side. Voila, a gatefold card.

A sneek peek.....................

Here is a sneek peek at one of the cards being published in Papercraft Inspirations due out on 1st September in the UK, a month later in the USA and Canada - it sells in Barnes and Noble, Books a Million and some Joannes. I have made 10 cards, all with a theme of lace. I have since been told that tall thin cards are difficult to photograph, so I am learning as I go along.....The article is all about different ways of using lace - felt fusion, paper lace, real lace etc etc. I can't wait to see them in the magazine. If you get a copy, let me know what you think.

There is a coupon code under the Cropstop logo on the right that they have given me for my readers - I am guest designer for October, everything on the site is in stock and they have the yummiest collection of dew drops I have ever seen. You get 10% off orders over $20.