Missing You - Great Impressions Stamp

This little girl in her kimono is so sweet. I stamped her onto white, then two pattern papers and cut her fan and kimono out before layering them on the base image with silicone glue to give them a bit of a lift. The stamp is by Great Impressions, and the papers by DCWV. Sentiment stamp is by Daisy Bucket.

This card is for Mike, who is keeping my blog going while I am in Spain, he has never done it before so you may see all sorts of old family photos popping up over the next few days! I am going to Calpe, which is close to Alicante, to stay in a friends villa with three girlfriends. We plan to veg out by the pool, read a lot and laugh a lot. It will be fun and I get to see sun at last!

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.

Moo-chas Grass-ias - Paper Dolls

This silly little cow from the paper dolls cartridge was perfect for the thank you card I wanted to make. I cut her in a black and white card, then again in white and cut off her face and horns, then added them to the pattern layer. She looked a bit like a zebra so I did some random black markings. I applied diamond glaze to her horns and feet and stuck two shiny black dots on for a nose.

Making her reminded me of the day when we opened the local paper in Florida and saw the following ad. in the 'lost and found' column.


LOST - BLACK AND WHITE CAT, LOOKS LIKE A COW.

Hmmm..........bet they found her pretty quick then. You know what the owners meant, but it looks so ridiculous in print.

Shaped Card Without Design Studio

I bought the Design Studio specifically to make cute 'shaped' cards, and have never used it. Mainly because, irritatingly, it can only be registered to one computer, and mine is in the USA. I will play with it when I get back. In the meantime, I worked out a way of making cards that do not have to be attached with a brad or ribbon, which never works very well for me. It would work well with all simple shapes, and really does not take long to do. I'm off to do a shoe next!

Cut out your chosen shape on your Cricut. I recommend using cardstock rather than paper as it serves as your template, and also makes the front of your finished card.

Draw around the shape carefully
Flip the shape over - do NOT overlap the sides, just place the flipped piece exactly on the line of the first shape as shown. Draw round the shape as before
Cut out your outlines leaving the join uncut Attach your original pattern cut to the front of your card

My first card for 2 Sketches 4 You

Two of my team mates from the Bitten By The Bug design team have started their own challenge blog, and it has taken the blogging world by storm. Take a look at 2 Sketches to see what all the fuss is about. Laura and Kazan are super talented.
This is the first chance I have had to join in with their weekly challenges, and this is my interpretation of this week's sketch. I used a cream card base then added layers of yummy papers by Creative Expressions, and cut one of the scrolly flowers out as a focal point. Some doodling and sewing, pearl gems and it ended up looking like this.

Birthday Boy - Train Card

The challenge on the Bitten By The Bug site this week was to use this little train from the New Arrival cartridge. I cut it at 4", the gifts are from various cartridges and the sentiment is from two Studio G stamps. I added the giant buttons for wheels to give it a bit of oomph! I did have fun using all these really bright primary colours together to catch a childs eye. I left the little star blank so that I can write the name of the child on it before I mail it.

Click HERE to go to the site and see how the designers all had different ideas for this cut.

Get Well Card

The 'dare' on DCM this week is to use sprinkles on your card. I suppose this sprinkling of tiny gems will fit the bill. The ice blue background is embossed with the d'vine swirls folder (what a pity the pretty embossing never shows up well on photos, but if you click on the photo to enlarge it, you will get a better idea), the stamps are by Great Impressions. The store where I used to buy these stamps has closed down, I will have to find another source. I love them, take a look on their website, they have a gallery with all sorts of cardmaking ideas.

Stretch Your Imagination Flower

I am still playing around with this cartridge, I have had it for some time and never used it much - until now, I am finding all sorts of stuff I like on it. The flower and pot were cut at 2 1/2" and there is quite a lot of cuttlebug embossing going on there in the background.

After a few days of glorious sunshine, the weather forecast is for heavy rain and flash floods - oh goody, now it will feel like summer in the UK once more.

Blog Award

I got this Wylde Women blog award from Dawny - thanks Dawny. I am passing it on to some blogging friends, Julie, Lana, Jozza and Allison

I also got tagged by QueenDavia and I am supposed to write all sorts of facts about myself that are going to bore you rigid, so stop reading NOW

10 Years ago I was ----- working full time, had never heard of rubber stamping, cardmaking or scrapbooking, longing to give up work but wondering what I would do with myself when I did - well, we all know the answer to that!

5 things on todays to do list ------ make a card, make a card, make a card, make a card, make a card

Snacks I enjoy ------ as if anybody would be interested in my gastronomic delights, so I'll pass on this one, but will give a honorable mention to Dunkin Donuts iced caramel latte. Make mine a large one please.

Things I would do if I was a millionaire ------- Invest wisely and make a billion

Places I have lived -------Wales, Yorkshire, West Midlands and Hudson, Florida

Hey, are you still here? Still awake?

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.

Bicycle Birthday - Stretch Your Imagination

This was going to be a quick little card, but ended up taking me ages. The bicycle is cut from the stretch your imagination cartridge, cut at 4 1/2", I added some stitching and lots of doodling, then added two prima flowers behind the diecut one. All the papers are from DCWV all dressed up stack. This is another card that looks better in real life, the black gets lost in the photo. I really must try and improve my photography skills

Penny Black Lambs - Just for Ewe

The challenge on the Penny Black challenge site this week is the farmyard, I have some cute cow stamps by them, but went for these little sheep. I do like the aqua and red colours, which were dictated by the little panel of pattern paper. The words were computer generated, and the red background was embossed with the swiss dots folder.
At last the weather is glorious here, it's so nice to feel warm and to have a coffee in the open air watching the world go by. Mind you, they forecast rain tomorrow!

Love Book for This Thursday

This week I was asked to be the guest designer on This Thursday a new challenge blog. They sent me all sorts of goodies from their sponsor the stamp man - gorgeous moonglow washes, gold leaf, fusible fibres. This is what I came up with. The LOVE book is by SEI and was sent to me by my message board friend Sheri. I painted it with the washes, which are a gorgeous coppery glow in real life, stamped around with some heart stamps by Technique Tuesday, cut some hearts with the cricut - george cartridge, and ran them through the cuttlebug script folder then rubbed them with gold leaf. Added some fusible fibres embossed with copper (they were fun to use, you just tear pieces off, place them where you want and heat with a heat gun, it goes all lacy, and then you sprinkle with embossing powder, it's a neat effect) and finally embossed a square of chipboard with ultra thick embossing powder and copper, then pressed one of the heart stamps into it to make the embellishment. A few ribbons and I was set to go. The products were fabulous to use and although this is a departure from my usual stuff, I so enjoyed using them and am really pleased with the result. Thank you Tracey for inviting me to guest design for you.

Penguin Card

This row of ridiculous looking penguins makes me laugh - especially the one on the end trying to look so cool in his shades and hip hop pants. The stamp is by Art Impressions, coloured with prismacolour pencils. I doodled the circles on the yellow shorts, and stamped the image again onto the blue floral paper, and paper pieced for the cool dude's outfit. I added glossy accents to the swim rings, surf board and scuba goggles. The sentiment is studio G $1 stamp and the papers are by SEI. I thought the background paper had an aquatic sort of feel to it.

If you want to try for some great blog candy go to see what Anice is giving away, just for leaving a comment. You could win the latest Christmas downloads as in the post below. Go HERE for a chance to win

Funky Little Christmas

These cards are made with the latest downloads from Funky Hand - yes, I do know it's only July!
I just love these papers, really cool colours and the trees come already printed. The first card was made by printing the pink snowflake pattern directly onto cardstock which I used as the card base. I cut a wavy piece of spotty paper, and cut out three trees which were run through the cuttlebug using the snowflake folder.
The second one was so quick to make, I just sewed around some of the leftover cardstock and added the gorgeous little topper which you just print out. I popped some of the trees, added a few gems and just love the result. I can see me making loads of these for Christmas, as they have that homemade look with very little effort.

Happy "Buttday" Card!

I thought I was being amazingly creative when I came up with this card idea, hand drew the shapes etc, then I discovered that you can buy pre-cut cards in this shape. Oh well, if I had invented the wheel, someone would have got there first! I have scanned the template I drew, if you copy it at 400% it will make a 4 1/2 x 6" card
We had a fun time in the Lakes, fun but soggy - it rained almost the whole time we were there. We went to the cinema last night to see 'The Mist' - the best bit was when a chap in the audience got up, stalked out of the cinema and as he got to the door turned and said loudly 'How many of YOU would leave if you could get your money back?' Yes, it was that awful - not such a 'feel-good' movie as Mama Mia that's for sure!

House Mouse and Strawberries

Isn't this little mouse adorable, fast asleep after his fill of strawberries........The colouring was done with prismacolour pencils, and the berries had diamond glaze added for extra shine.
We are off to the Lake district in the north of England for a couple of days, we love it there, stunning scenery and loads of sunshine (well the last bit is wishful thinking on my part!)

Monday Morning Card

Here's a 'monday morning' card, to reflect that 'back to work' feeling and the fact that the sun is still not shining in the UK. The stamp and sentiment are by Judikins - I just love how this woman looks. The papers are by DCWV.

Have a nice day!

Three Funky Hand Cards

Here are three cards all made with papers printed on my computer from the 'It's Funky Too' CD. The first one is for a boy, using some great football paper. I cut the word boy out on my cricut, using the george cartridge, added some staples and buttons to jazz it up a little, and cut out three more footballs as accents, I covered these in diamond glaze.

The second one is made with a paper printed all over with 'fifty', I computer generated the sentiment and did lots of doodly sewing, added some primas and buttons, then cut out just the F from one of the words and mounted it on black then used a pop dot to raise it off the card.

The third one - love these colours - again uses prima paper flowers. I made a butterfly out of two paper blooms by cutting the fifth petal into antennae and adding some stickles and gems. This card is a bit of a departure from my usual style, but I love the way it turned out, mainly because of the fabulous and unusual colours of the papers.

These cards are going to be used as demo cards on a UK craft channel called Create and Craft, and are quite challenging to do, as you are showcasing the papers and can't use any stamped images other than generic sentiments, so it's sometimes a creative battle to come up with something that fits that brief.

Just Chillin - A Cool Card In Summertime

The dare on DCM this week is to make a card that makes you think of cool weather - last week they had us making Christmas cards, better dig those Easter bunnies out! I had this cute image from a Daisy Dee's set, stamped it three times onto different pattern papers then pieced it together. The background is cuttlebug snowflakes and a bit of sewing. A sprinkle of stickles and I was done.

The summer cold has streamed unabated all week. Mike now has it, so we are doing synchronised sniffling - if there was an olympic event in this, we would win the gold for sure.