Cake Anyone? (and ProMarker winner)

 Here's a cake card that I made for this month's Papercraft Inspirations Magazine, on sale now

The papers, doily and cake stamp are all by Papermania - a current range, you will find it in Hobbycraft....I was aiming for a shabby chic look with this one, I think it worked.. 

Did you know that you can buy digital copies of Papercraft Inspirations? Take a look HERE



Thank you all for the sweet messages yesterday, much appreciated..

I will be spending this weekend making some samples for Craftwork Cards TV show next week, so sitting at my desk, which is lucky because I am still suffering from the effects of my undignified bump onto the floor a few days ago - walking is fine, sitting is fine, lying down is fine, but walking up stairs just about kills me! Very strange. Hopefully it will wear off soon, I need to be in tip top shape for next week when I go to the big craft show at the NEC - I'll be sure to take my camera along for that .

On to the winner of the Autumn edition ProMarkers. I forgot to take a screenshot of random.org, but the name that came up was:

JANE (who signed herself as Jane Brown on the Letraset blog) her blog is called the Craft Bucket

Congrats Jane, send me an email and I will get your markers in the post to you. See you all tomorrow with the Card Candi winners x

Happy Birthday Cake...

Here's a peek at one of the cards I have in this month's Papercraft Inspirations Magazine, on sale now - the theme was birthday cakes, and I made this one using up scraps of ribbon 

and you are right, the top corner is a bit bashed in, I send the cards to the magazine to be photographed, then they get sent back to me, obviously this one didn't like all that travelling...

Since I last chatted to you I have had two nasty crafting accidents - who would have thought that making cards could be classed as an extreme sport! Firstly, my dear beloved decided to vacuum the room where I craft - the poor guy was probably fed up with picking his way over all the rubbish, risking getting a stray glitter letter X or a foam pad sticking to his shoes...anyway, I wandered into the newly cleaned room and didn't notice that my chair was partially balanced on a plastic box, so I sat down and BINGO, in slow motion, down I went, straight onto the floor with a spine jarring thud. My poor coccyx is still feeling the pain, and I spent a couple of shaky hours on the sofa feeling sorry for myself and watching Judge Judy (I love that woman, straight to the point.. ). Then I gave myself a brisk talking-to and went back to the desk to finish the sheet music project (yes I found it, for some reason it was with the printer paper, never mind)............the project involved hot glue, so out came the little glue gun, and I promptly glued my fingers together. It's not nice to peel glue off your skin and see the skin coming away with the glue. Ouchie!
So I decided I needed a break from the craft desk before I did something really stupid with a paper cutter or craft knife. 

For those of you not in the UK, we are expecting a really nasty storm to hit overnight, the type of storm that we only get once every few years. The TV and papers have been full of it for days, so just in case we get a power cut I thought I should look out a torch, I know we have one somewhere. Couldn't find it anywhere, but I did find a lot of those little LED tealights from Christmas, so if the power does go, we can sit around singing Christmas carols, or have a seance or something...If you ARE in the UK, stay safe my friends..

See you tomorrow x

Christmas Mice....

I don't think I shared with you the Christmas mice commission that I made for Papercraft Inspirations magazine last year, the one that caused me a lot of angst because I couldn't get my head around mice and Christmas. In the end, the cards were cute, I will share the others with you tomorrow. This is my favourite - the mice were done with punches and I messed around with their little choirboy robes and gave them a little scrap of sheet music to hold... 

Look what my very talented artist friend Anne has done for my kitchen - well, she didn't paint it for my kitchen exactly, but it sort of jumped into my car and came home with me. It hangs behind the dining table and looks perfect.  Isn't it fabulous? It's painted in ink on canvas and has the most alluring silver highlights. I so wish I could do this sort of thing, but as I can't, well it is very handy to have a very good friend who can! Thank you Anne x 

Overheard in town as I was walking along, a small child's voice piping 'please tell me we aren't going to go into that shop Mummy'. Amused, I turned around to see a worried looking little four year old - yes, it was a boy child, aversion to shopping must be in the male DNA!

See you tomorrow x 

Hello America

First of all, the winner of the neon markers, drawn from all the comments left on the post on Letraset's blog is:

Joan Murphins

Congratulations Joan, email me your address and your markers will be in the mail 

Here's one I made for this month's edition of Papercraft Inspirations magazine, on sale now in the UK, very soon in the rest of the world. I had to make four quick cards with a chocolate theme, and decided dipped strawberries would be good for one of them....

Here we are back in the USA - number of times security made me open my case to examine Nestability dies - three, number of times I sat next to a snoring guy (not my husband!) - two, number of times I fell asleep when at last I had a chance to do so - zero. So all in all, a pretty average journey really, and an average sort of settling in period as well, the computer sulked about being put on endless conveyor belts, the water heater didn't realise it's summer vacation was over and refused to heat any water.....never mind, I plan a quick trip to Dunkin Donuts tomorrow, that will make everything right

WOYWW

I haven't taken part in WOYWW for a while because I haven't had much spare time to go around all the blogs, but I am fairly organized this week, so here goes... WOYWW? for those not in the know, it's What's on your workdesk Wednesday, a chance to have a crafty peek at the desks of crafters from all over the world. Here's mine, looking a bit messy (you should see my hands!) as I have been playing with alcohol inks. Love the effects you can get, lost count of the clothes I have had to throw out after using them. My green craft mat has become bent somehow, so has great ridges in it. I have had to take it off the table as it was impossible to work on it. Sigh, that white desk isn't going to stay white for long...........

and since what I have been doing is a bit of a secret, here's a card I made for this month's Papercraft Inspirations magazine, follow the link, they have an amazing offer if you sign up, and you get all sorts of freebies every month......

.

Random thought of the day, why do weeds grow quicker and stronger than flowers? I mean, you nurture flowers with all sorts of plant food, watering, deadheading etc. Weeds? No attention and they grow by six inches a day. Now if someone could tap into the weed gene pool, we would all save a heck of a lot of money on fertilizers

Another Day.....

Here's a couple of cards that were made for a past commission for Papercraft Inspirations/Quick Cards. My brief was humorous female birthday cards, these fall into the mildly amusing bracket rather than roll around on the floor laughing category......

Talking of amusing, my darling kids have a very acute sense of (dark) humour. can't think where they get it from. I posted on Facebook about my Gypsy dying on me, and had an email from middle sprog....
'Mum, what's all this about? Is Gypsy your pet name for Dad? Some people are posting condolences' Yes, yes, very funny Edward................


So mojo still missing, the rain is still raining, and now a crown has fallen off my tooth. I go today to have it fixed, £400! Ah well, tomorrow is yet another day.........

Make a Wish........

I got back to my desk today, had quite a productive time up there, but the light had gone, so too late to photograph, so I am showing you two more cards from last month's Papercraft Inspirations magazine (on sale now in the USA). The theme was 'Quick Cards' and the brief was make a wish

The circles on this next one are really glittery. I matched the gems to the glittery circle, if I didn't have a match, I just coloured clear gems with Promarkers. The birthday cake punch is by Martha Stewart

I am loving my iPad - look what I did. I went to the Cricut website, clicked on information, then cartridge library

all the cartridges are listed (well, annoyingly they take ages to put the newer ones on there). I clicked on view in the right hand column for the cartridges I own, that opened the handbook

I sent them over to iBooks......TO DO THIS, CLICK ON THE TOP RIGHT SIDE OF THE PAGE AND YOU WILL SEE THIS ICON

CLICK ON 'OPEN IN iBOOKS - and here they all are in a virtual bookshelf 

You have to do each book individually, you can't do them all at once, but it only takes a minute to do

the pages show up just like the handbook, in colour and easy to read

This really will be a huge help to me, I really like to read the handbooks, in fact I have been known to take a pile of them to bed with me. I read them like saner people read the latest John Grisham, so now I can have a browse wherever I am, and I don't even need to be hooked up to the internet to read them. All I need is my little notepad and pen to jot down ideas - wait, I think the iPad can do that as well. Hmmm, one step at a time - I do promise that this will be the first and last iPad tutorial!


New photos of two little boys on the sidebar


I'll be back tomorrow with a round up of my favourite cards for 2011

Woo Hoo - I'm on the cover

When I have something in Papercraft Inspirations magazine, they always send me a copy - sometimes it is a few days later than the date it hits the stores here, and I am usually cool about it - just hoping that whatever project I made looks good on the pages.

So this month I saw the new issue in W H Smith and was about to pass by when I saw these flowers, MY flowers, peeking out at me from the cover. Of course I had to snap it up........and here it is, my flowerpot card made with some nestability dies and stamps by Heartfelt Creations that I picked up at CHA.

I was so pleased with the photography and the way the projects looked, it almost made we want to start making the cards.............oops, I forgot, I already did :)

I wish I could tell you that the gorgeous woman smiling merrily in the background is me, but I know that that would be greeted by chortles and chuckles by you lot, (did I hear cries of 'liar liar, pants on fire?) ah well, at least my card is young and lovely!

Here's a sneak peek at one of the cards inside the magazine, made with the same dies and stamps (look out for my teacher cards as well) The magazine is on sale now here in the UK, and will be on sale on the 1st July in the USA. As always, there are freebie paper downloads and competitions on the PI blog, hop over there and sign up for the newsletter

I am feeling partially human again after the evil plane-bug, and even sat rather listlessly at my craft table today - all I did was shove a couple of pieces of paper about from one spot to another then back again. Tomorrow is another day

A couple of cocktail cards......

Here's a couple of cards with a cocktail theme that I made for last months Papercraft Inspirations magazine - on sale now in the USA. Details of how to make them are in the mag............

We are looking for a new camera. Never before have we researched anything so thoroughly, and the more we read, the more confused we get. At the moment a Canon G12 is in the lead, but that could change at any moment when I read another online review that complains of some obscure technical downside. I have visions of going happily to advanced camera courses, learning all about ISO and image stabilization......... The reality is that I will set it to AUTO, and there it will stay. Anyone have any camera preferences?

It was Milo's second birthday yesterday, and Max will be four tomorrow.

Happy Birthday poppets,

The winner is....... and some tweet cards

Hi everyone - Happy Mothers Day to those of you in the USA and anywhere that's celebrating mum's today

Thanks to all of you who joined in with the Royal Wedding street party blog hop - I used

random.org to pick a winner, and the hopper out of the hat is

Sharon in Arizona

Congrats Sharon, email me with your address, and I will get your package in the post

Here are a couple more cards from last month's Papercraft Inspirations magazine. My commission was to make four cards with a bird theme, for the 'quick cards' section of the magazine. Don't forget that every month you can go HERE to download all the fabulous free papers that are in the magazine each month. Lots of giveaways and competitions on there as well, sign up for a email newsletter to give you all the latest news

This first card used Tim Holtz papers, and I can't tell you what a job I had to find that white feather - I could only find dyed feathers. No, I didn't have to capture a dove, I found a white feather boa in Poundland!

This next one used papers and toppers printed out from the Back to Nature Polkadoodles CD

It seems strange to have everyone wishing me 'happy mother's day' here in the USA, because I have already had mothers day once this year, it is celebrated in March or April at home in the UK. I am trying to educate my kids so that they recognize my immense talents as a mother twice in one year, but for some reason they are reluctant to start what seems to me a very sensible new tradition. The general reaction is 'don't push your luck Mum'.

See you tomorrow

Male Six Pack Card

Here's another peek at a Papercraft Inspirations Magazine card. The brief was a male card with a drink theme............ so I got Mike to drink his way through a six pack (he moaned and groaned about this assignment, but did it for the sake of art :) - and saved the ring pulls

Papers - cafe stack by DCWV

Circles cut at 2 1/2" using George cartridge and Cricut machine
Sentiment - computer generated

I met a friend for coffee, it was nice enough to sit outside in the town square. Our girly chat was interrupted by a pigeon with only one foot. She was hopping along quite happily, foraging for crumbs on the ground. By the size of her, she was quite accomplished at this. Anne however was quite overcome by this sight. 'I can't bear it' she cried, almost sobbing into her latte 'she won't be able to perch, she'll fall out of the tree'. Well frankly, looking at Miss Hopalong, she was more likely to fall out of the tree because the branch would break under her weight than because of her disability. I was a bit worried that Anne was about to make an emergency call to a vet, so I diverted her with the news that Marks and Spencer were having a mid season sale.............that did the trick.

Two more magazine cards ............

Since I have had my hands full with little boys for the past couple of days, here's a peek at two more quick cards from this month's Papercraft Inspirations. The first one is a card for Mum - it would do as a birthday card or mother's day I suppose. The circle card is the doily cut from wildcard, cut on blackout at 6", and the papers are from Polkadoodles Sugar Birdies Cd. I cut the flowers from one of the papers, added a bit of doodling and a quick sentiment.

This one was based on a very heavily altered pregnant mummy cut from New Arrival. I really just used the base cut and altered it drastically, especially around the legs, but she turned out looking good - I wish my legs looked like that! The sentiment is from a stamp set by MFT (My Favourite Things). the figure was done in white card, and I used flesh copics (E00 and E02) to turn it into skin tones
The boys were really good yesterday, thank goodness. Milo has got used to us now, and we had a lot of smiles, and even a few chuckles, and as long as any activity revolves around Fireman Sam, Max is happy. He spends his time dashing around putting out imaginary fires. EMERGENCY he yells, dashing past you waving a plastic fire extinguisher. I have taken quite a few photos, so will update the ones on my sidebar over the weekend.

Male Birthday Card for Papercraft Inspirations

Hi everyone, thanks to all of you who wanted to win the heart mini album, I used random.org and the winner is

thkelly (Therersa K)

Congrats! Email me with your address and I will get it in the mail (together with a few surprise bits and pieces) on monday

Here's a peek at a card from this month's edition of Papercraft Inspirations magazine, the Quick Cards section. I was asked to make a colourful card for a male birthday, with a cake theme. I quite liked this one, I cut varying lengths of bright paper, the candle flames are hand-drawn, and the arrow was cut from Going Places. Tiny making memories alphas (whatever will I do if they stop making these?) and the CAKE is spelt using American Crafts felt thickers

I am busy working on some samples for the TV launch of a new Polkadoodles CD on the 23rd February, I have just finished one card, and would so love to share it with you, but you will have to wait. Nikky comes up with the cutest ideas.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, I'll be back tomorrow to wish you a happy Valentines day

Happy New Year to all of you

I haven't had much time for making cards I can show you lately - working on a magazine commission at the moment, so thought I would pop these on, all cards I made for a recent edition of the 'Quick Cards' section of Papercraft Inspirations magazine. This is a section of the magazine that shows cards that can be made in 30 minutes or less, maybe for crafters in a hurry or less experienced cardmakers. Any shapes used are printed as templates in the back of the magazine for the readers to trace or copy. For the first one the brief was a male card using an iconic travel image, this is what I came up with

I stamped the image twice, once onto the pattern paper which does away with colouring (well, they are quick cards :)

and again onto the red, then cut out the sphinx image
For the second one, the brief was a male card again, using a car image. I found this really cute key charm that I stuck on. The car is from Going Places, and the words were printed off the computer and chopped up. The edges of this one look a bit battered, but these cards have travelled to the Editor's office, then to the photography studio, then back to me, I never think of photographing them before mailing them


This little chap was done with scallped ovals/circles and a lot of doodling. The sentiment came to me in a flash as I was making the card, I thought it was funny, always love a play on words. It's always quite a challenge to come up with something a bit different that people can copy in 30 minutes or less.

So, any new year resolutions? I always have such a long list, most of them are broken by the middle of January, so don't think I will bother, although I could do with being a bit more organised, a bit less fluffy, and a lot less talkative. Whatever your resolutions, I hope 2010 is a happy and healthy one for you all and your families, and thank you all so much for all the support you have given me in 2009 - I wouldn't do it without you!

Two Cards Made with Free Papers

Here are two cards made with the free papers from this month's Papercraft Inspirations magazine, on sale here in the UK on the 3rd August, one month later in the USA. I downloaded the papers from the website, I like doing this because you can print the papers out onto substantial weight cardstock, have a browse around, there are some beautiful designs up for grabs there, I particularly love the safari papers

I freehand cut a very random flower, then some circles which I scrunched up and snipped.....
I printed the sentiment circle out three times, cut out the white inner circle and stuck it on with pop dots to the red scallop, then cut out the ladybird and popped that up too, ladybird is covered with glossy accents

Love this bee paper, all papers and sentiment downloaded as before. The stem of the flower is a border that I pleated before attaching to the card. I cut a scallop circle with a Go-Kreate scallop die and inked the edges with a brown cats eye chalk ink. The border was done with Martha Stewart embossed zigzag punch


The bee is a Go-create die, isn't he cute? I gave him some rosy cheeks with chalk



the sentiment was one of many on the download, I did 'what's the' on the computer. All the papers will be in the magazine, or pop over to the website and take a look

Baby Girl Card for Cute Daisy May

What a sweet little sleeping girl, having her nap on the moon.................

and inside................

On Cute Daisy May this week, the challenge is 'anything goes' so you can pick your favourite card and enter it for a chance to win a blinkie for your blog and a free download. I picked this sweet little girl image, and cut a moon with the New Arrival cartridge. The sentiments are computer generated and the papers are Heidi Grace. The border was done with the martha stewart valentine hearts border punch, and the pink ribbon is a twill, also by MS

There is a blog hop over on Bitten by the Bug this week, the main prize is the brand new Stand and Salute Cricut cartridge, so hop on over there to see how you can be in with a chance of winning (I didn't join in this week, a. because I don't have that cartridge, and b. because I am a bit up to my eyes in it with my own bloggy candy thing)

I am busy with a magazine commission, working on the Christmas issue, it seems odd to be working with snowflakes in June. I have a lot of emails asking about doing stuff for a magazine. How it works is that the editor contacts me with an idea for an article, or I have been known to come up with an idea myself, we toss these ideas around via email, and when I have a clear picture of what is wanted, I start searching for supplies. All the papers/stamps etc have to be current, and available from a UK supplier, so I can't pull some paper randomly out of my stash. When that is sorted and the cards designed and made (avoiding some specific colours that don't photograph well), you write the accompanying article, again to a specific format and using a set number of words. Then I email the text, and send the cards off to be photographed, which has to be done before a tight deadline. Magazines work at least three months in advance, so it can be Christmas in June or Easter in December. Jenny Dixon the editor of Papercraft Inspirations magazine is lovely, very approachable and is good at gently telling me that some of my wildest ideas just wouldn't work! Take a look at the site, there are always freebie downloads on there, and competitions too.

Feel Better Card for Colour Create.....and a sneeky peek

On Colour Create this week the colours are red, chocolate and cream, so I made this little house mouse stamp fit the bill. I added a large scalloped circle (cut in half) down one side, and a strip of torn corrugated card. Some ribbon, flowers and a bit of string and I was done. I love this little image.

Here is a sneeky peek of one of the cards that I made this month for Papercraft Inspirations (on sale now in the UK, June 1st in the USA). The whole article is about turning your pocket cards into gifts. Here is a man card, I made some girlie ones, a teen one and so on.

Cheeky Male Valentine

I am cheating a bit here, as this is a card that was published in Papercraft Inspirations two or three issues ago, but as it is that time of the year again, when hot blooded persons turn their thoughts to love and stuff, this might just give someone an idea or two. The inside of the card reads........................to ask if you will be my Valentine. I drew the boxers freehand, but some of the trouser cuts on the paper dolls cartridge could be cut down to make them if you prefer. Tip - glue the little clothes pegs on with silicone glue so that they really stick well. The papers are by Bo Bunny sweetheart range.

Thanks for all your nice comments on keeping warm. The situation remains the same while we wait for our new boiler to arrive, except that the old one, burnt out and defunct, has decided to suddenly fire up of it's own accord, runs for about an hour, just time to discard a layer or two of clothing, then dies again. Great, so now we have a possessed boiler.

Do you like my new blog header? I decided it was time for a change, and as I don't have time to make my own, which I keep meaning to do, I trawled through Rachelle Anne Millers delightful illustrations again, to come up with this one, which looks a bit springlike and happy.