Update

Thank you all so much for all your good wishes and concern. The last week has been a roller coaster of drama/emotion/highs and lows, but I am happy to tell you that Mike is back home with me in Hudson. He has had a stent put in, so we won't be able to fly back to the UK for two weeks, so I may even get back to the crafting table later, although we are both pretty exhausted right now. Thank you all again, I was quite overwhelmed with all the messages I received and consider myself blessed to have such caring online buddies x

Just a quick post

To let you know that Mike my husband has been taken ill and is in hospital. Obviously everything else in my life is on hold until he is better and at home. We were due to fly back to the UK on thursday but I doubt that will happen just yet. If you believe in prayer, I would appreciate it if you can remember us for a moment.
Enfys x

Animal Kingdom Christmas Penguins

I thought I would make a Christmas card using the penguins from animal kingdom. I cut them in white at 5", then again for the layer in a spotty black and white paper. I gave the mummy penguin a gift to hold, decorated with a punched snowflake, the baby is sitting on a bed of punched pine branches that have been glittered. He is only sitting on these because there was a smudge that found it's way onto the card when I wasn't looking, so I had to cover it up somehow. I was too far down the line to start again! I am sure you all know this, but a great way of applying glitter to cuts like this is to run them backwards through your xyron machine, so that the front of the die cut is sticky, cover with glitter then run through again to make the back sticky. The animal faces were stamped using Peachy Keen stamps, the set gives faces for all the animals on this cartridge. Their expressions make me laugh, they look rather disdainful and a bit bored.

Funky Daze Word Book

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANICE

Anice, the very talented owner of Funky Hand is 40 today, she is the sweetest person and I am so happy to be on her design team. She has just released her new CD, called Funky Daze, with a fabulous range of printable papers, alphabets and, wow, wow, wow, the ability to print your own word book. I was really excited to get my demo CD and couldn't wait to see how it worked out. I printed out the word PLAY on a stiff white cardstock (the sort you get in a great big pack from the office supply aisle in Walmart), then printed out some coordinating papers, again on cardstock and backed the letters with those. With the two layers of card, it made a really substantial little book. I don't have a bind-it-all, so used key rings to hold it all together, then tied ribbons to them. The photos are all of Kiki playing in the park and with her doll. This word book has been sent to Anice as she will be showcasing her new line on Ideal World Create and Craft TV in the UK. The CD can be seen HERE - shipping is free to anywhere in the world.

Regular bloggy friends will remember the saga of the black pig which was snuffling around outside one dark night a few weeks ago? Suggestions were gently made that I was demented/drunk/mistaking an armadillo for a pig and so on, and on.................nobody really believed me. Well, I am totally vindicated. Guess what was spotted on US19 this week (a really busy highway about a mile away from our house) - not one, but TWO black pigs snuffling around on the verge. One of them was definitely mine I've decided, but if it hangs around US19 for any length of time it will be going to a piggy graveyard, there are some crazy drivers on that road.

Christmas card of the day

Here is another snowman, stamped with a friends stamp at a crop, so I am not totally sure who made it, but think it was by Stampendous. I decided to use the Martha Stewart star punch to cut a border out all around a white rectangle, bad mistake, huge, because of course when you get to the corners it all goes belly up. By this time I was tired, and the floor was littered with tiny punched out stars, so I gathered some of them up and stuck them on all over the place, including the corners to disguise the mess.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to send me birthday wishes, I really appreciated it. Today we went with friends (another British couple, very old friends John and Barbara) for lunch at a place called Tarpon Turtle, on the river in Tarpon Springs. It was a lovely setting for lunch, sitting there looking out at the little ducks and egrets. 'Oh look' said Barb brightly 'a baby crocodile' - a baby alligator actually Barb, wrong continent. He was about a foot long and stayed there for about an hour, sunning himself and looking thoughtfully at the ducks.

I have finished my latest commission for Papercraft Inspirations, apart from playing around with the text a little, so they are all ready to mail, and looking good. The whole series of cards went really well, except for the last one which I made, tore up, reworked, tore up, reworked...............and so on, ad infinitum. Finally, I changed the paper I was using, and it all fell into place. So now I am a happy bunny, hope the Editor will be too.

Today is my Birthday, look what I got..............

Nothing crafty, just the most precious things in the world. The card is from Kiki, who sang Happy Birthday very loudly to me over the phone, and the photo is of course, little Max.

So whatever else happens today, I have this cozy warm happy feeling.

Wildcard Christmas House

Here is the house from wildcard, turned into something Christmasy. You must all be so tired of seeing all these festive cards by now, but I am a woman on a mission. I cut the house at 7" in red, then again in green and then cut the layers. The door wreath is from a pack I picked up in walmart, the little bell has a little clapper so it tinkles. The snow is white fabric paint sprinkled with glitter. The little door opens, so I stamped Seasons Greetings inside.

Baby Snow Christmas Card

The card was cut from Wildcard in ice blue, then again in a snowflake pattern paper by DCWV at 5 1/4". I cut a nestabilities scallop circle in ice blue for the centre and attached the stamped image to that. The snowman, from Sparkle n Stamp was stamped twice, once on white and once on the snowflake pattern paper and his hat and scarf cut out of that. A pompom, epoxy snowflake brad and a liberal sprinkling of Martha Stewart coarse snow glitter and he was done. The bow was made using a little gadget called the Bowdabara from Michaels, I stuck a silver sequin snowflake and a rhinestone brad in the centre. It's a glittery little card, and I really like the effect.

One thing I am learning about Wildcard, is that almost all the cards look better if you cut the base card out on blackout first, then layer on top of that. That way, you don't get all those little score marks showing on the inside of your card. It really does have the most hopeless instruction book, but the results are so cute I am just learning as I go along. If you just want a plain envelope that will fit your card, cut on 'blackout' and the tiny notches showing you where to fold will still be there. I wish they would abandon that as the notches show when you crease the folds, especially if the back of your paper is white. I swipe a coordinating ink pad around the edges and that disguises the notches.

Lola's Christmas Pudding!

This may not make much sense to readers outside the UK, but when someone is pregnant, we say 'she's in the pudding club'. Of course, the traditional dessert on Christmas day is the plum pudding (which is so rich and heavy that after stuffing themselves with turkey and all the trimmings nobody wants to eat. But tradition is tradition.) So here is Lola, bump and all, for a fun Christmas card. The sentiment was computer generated. I can't imagine who will be getting this one :) Image as before, from Pink Petticoat Oops, just noticed I have left the H out of Christmas. Back to the computer..........................

Expecting - Congrats

I made not one, but two of these cards. Why? You see my adorable Kiki on my sidebar? Well, she is having a new baby brother or sister in May. You see my little pickle Max on my sidebar? Well, he is having a new baby brother or sister in.........MAY! So I am doubling the number of my grandchildren within a week of each other (I'll have to get a longer sidebar). So these cards are winging their way across the Atlantic as I speak. I am so excited. My daughters-in-law have both had their 12 week scans, and are set to enjoy their pregnancies.

Trendy Christmas Cards

Ihave quite a few 'young women about town' to make Christmas cards for, including my daughter Alex, so when I saw this download from Pink Petticoat I bought it immediately. So here's Lola, doing what she does best, dressing up and shopping. All the images were coloured with copic markers and the papers are all by DCWV and Martha's Christmas stacks. Click HERE to go to the site, you just order the images which come as a zip file to your email address. Download, open the file and print. Easy peasy. For all of you in the US, the price works out at $7.50, no tax or shipping. It's a UK company (yeah!) and she is a very talented artist.

Bare Tree Christmas Card

The challenge that was given to the design team over on Bitten By The Bug this week, was to use the 'bare tree' from the stretch your imagination cartridge as a Christmas card. I cut the tree at 5", and ran it through the cuttlebug using the distressed stripes folder. Inked the edges in blue to give definition as it was going on a white background, and applied icicle stickles. The little blue stars are from a snowflake pack by Martha Stewart, as is the large snowflake on the organza bow. The card itself is pre-embossed snowflakes by DCWV. Click HERE to see the other ideas the rest of the team came up with, as always, there is such a great variety of cards to see.

Little Angelique for Crafty Muse

I found a brand new challenge blog called Crafty Muse and for their very first challenge they are giving this sweet little Angelique image away FREE. Just click HERE to download her and start playing. I love downloaded images, you can colour them in without worrying about the ink bleeding, and of course the image is always perfect, unlike some of my stamping where I have to have two or three tries sometimes to get it right. I printed her twice, once onto pattern paper and cut the dress out of that. There is a teensy bit of glitter on the wings, done with a clear stardust pen. The stars are Martha Stewarts new border punch, and the sentiment circle is a wood mount studio G. Ribbon is fabulous Martha Stewart twill, I love this and it has been discontinued. I should have bought it all up when I had the chance.

Christmas Card of the Day

And here's one I made earlier............................ this is the trifold card from the wildcard cartridge, the JOY letters were cut from plantin schoolbood at 4". The branches are Martha Stewart branch punch. The double sided paper of the card is Bo Bunny, the other papers are by Basic Grey (Wassail collection). There is quite a lot of sparkle on the card which doesn't show at all in the photo. One of those cards that is prettier in real life.

Happy Birthday

I do love Penny Black stamps, they are always such fun to colour. I played with my prismacolour pencils, and the sentiment stamp is one I got free from a magazine.

My mojo has gone missing, has anybody seen it? I have some magazine commissions to do, and a deadline to meet and I have just wasted a whole evening messing around with a card that is just not good enough. I tidied my scrap area so that tomorrow everything will be tidy and nice for me to start work, I'll let you know how it goes. Lots of you have asked me how magazine designing works, do I just make the cards and send them in? The answer to that is a definite no. You are given very specific guidelines on what they want, it has to fit in with the whole issue, supplies have to be current and available, and you write the text as well, including a list of materials used and suppliers, plus of course deadlines to meet. My goal is to give every card a 'I would never have thought of that' reaction from the readers. It's fun, challenging and very rewarding to see your work in print. My deadlines are shortened by a week when I am in the USA to allow for the airmail times. So with all this going on, there may be just a slight hiccup in my 'christmas card of the day' project.

Christmas Card of the Day

These jolly little penguins are by great Impressions, I stamped them three times so that they were in a row. I cut the card on an angle and matted it at an angle as well. The border is doodled and the papers are by DCWV

WildCard Candles

Another simple little Wild Card effort. These are the Hanukah candles, but I thought they would be fine for birthday candles too. The button is a cosmo cricket chipboard one, covered, and the sentiment is handwritten with an Inkessentials white pen

Christmas Card of the Day

This is another fun image that I borrowed from a friend at a crop, although I think the snowmen look as if they have been enjoying a little too much Christmas cheer and all look drunk. The stamp is by Stampendous, Martha Stewart papers and Hero Arts sentiment. The scarves were cut from pattern paper.

Two Cards For Men

Yes, one of the most difficult tasks in the world is to produce cards for men who don't golf, sail, enjoy soccer or any other sport, but I think either of these would fit the bill, because of the colours I chose. They are both made with stampin up images, and the papers are Daisy D's. I must say, although they are a challenge to make, they are not as much fun as making cards for girlfriends, no pretty flowers, no sparkles or bling.

We went to friends for a fabulous lobster dinner on Sunday night. Carol and Alicia had made a trip on Saturday to the guy who sells the live lobsters, and had very specific instructions from him as to their care until they made that headlong dive into a pot of boiling water. So they returned home and carefully put them in the laundry sink/washbasin with ice. The lobsters were heard skittering around at about 11pm. The next morning, Carol went to walk her dog to be confronted by Alicia on her drive. 'They're DEAD' she said tragically. Yes, the ice had melted, and they had drowned during the night. No I didn't know that lobsters could drown in fresh water either. A frantic dash to the computer produced the information that they were quite safe to eat. So we did, and jolly delicious they were too, although we did ask each other 'Are you feeling okay?' rather a lot during the course of the evening, and were all quite relieved that we woke up feeling good on Monday morning!

Fabric Card

Have you ever tried using fabric on a card? It's so easy, all you do is find a fabric with clear simple images, you only need a little remnant, swipe the back all over with a glue stick, and stick onto cardstock. Iron out any creases with your bone folder and allow to dry. When it is ready, cut around the image and attach to your card in the usual way. This little tiger is for a child's birthday. I will put the age of the child on the animal print button (in black I think) before sending the card. In this card, the tiger and the grass are cut from fabric.