St Patrick's Day Card for DCM

On Daring Cardmakers, this week's dare is to use green on a card, since I had the new download from the Cutting Cafe just begging to be cut in green, I enjoyed doing this one. The papers are a variety that I have had hanging around for ages, the twill ribbon was from the dollar bin at Michaels.

Tilda on a bridge - Happy Birthday

So I was given two Tilda stamps, I have never owned any of these images, and resisted buying them as I felt the craze had been and gone in Europe, without me even being aware of it! Having said that, they sure are cute. So I fancied making a scene type of card, you can buy bridge, fence, bench stamps from Magnolia, but I wasn't about to go there, so I turned to my cricut and cut the bridge at 4" from the Paper Dolls cartridge out in cream, and some grass at 1" in green.

I coloured the bridge in with every colour of grey and brown copic markers that I have, and was quite pleased with the result. I used the bubbles embossing folder to emboss a scrap of blue for the water, added a few flowers. The words Birthday Girl were cut in pink using the Skipton alphabet from Go-Kreate, and again in black as a shadow. The background paper is from DCWV Nanas Kids stack.

So Valentines day has been and gone, I hope you all had a lovely day. I received my usual bunch of flowers bought from the local garage - bless him, he doesn't know you can buy them from special shops called florists. So I suppose this is the time for us to dust off those cute little bunny stamps and stock up on yellow and green paper.

Boo Bear - You're Sweet As Honey

I love bears, and have always wished that there was a really cute bear on a Cricut cartridge, but there isn't, so I found this gorgeous little chap as a die from Go-Kreate. I cut him twice on my cuttlebug, once in cardstock and once in brown mulberry paper. I applied glossy accents to his paws and nose to make them nice and shiny, and gave him a blush of chalk on his cheeks. The word 'you're' is also a die from Go-Kreate, don't you just love this font (Skipton alphabet). The alphabet die, which is the size of a cuttlebug embossing folder has upper and lower case plus numbers on it, so you cut the whole alpha out in just one cut, and the letters are the perfect size for cards. The papers are Cloud 9, and the border punch is Martha Stewart scallop hearts.

Getting Old.............................

Getting old ain't for sissies according to this sentiment, and I am inclined to agree with that. I think the image (Impression Obsession) is hilarious, must get me a pair of those huge bunny slippers. I stamped and coloured the image (with copics) first, big mistake, huge..........make a mental note to always choose your patterns first and colour your image last. She is coloured in quite clashing colours (well, she doesn't look like the sort of woman who would coordinate her nightwear does she, more like the sort who buys it off the bargain rail at Walmart). This plain stripe paper by DCWV worked, and I picked out some of the colours for the little square buttons as an accent.

Speaking of getting old, looking after a 20 month old for four days certainly wore me out. Did I really bring up three of these whirlwind little people myself? He goes at life full tilt, why walk when you can run - preferably running very fast away from Ma who is trying to keep him safe. He is so sweet though, his bedtime cuddly toy is a monkey, and he grabs onto it when he is in need of a bit of comfort during the day, I couldn't understand what he wanted, so he gave me a baleful look, and beat his little chest like a monkey! Oh now I get it.

Thank You Julie

When I was last in the US, I did a bit of shopping for an online friend, Julie, and yesterday when I got home, look what was waiting for me. She had ordered me the gorgeous QK butterfly die that I have long coveted, and sent me this truly beautiful thank you card as well. Isn't it pretty? The thank you circle is dotted with pearls and suspended on a jump ring, so it hangs like a little charm. Thank you so much Julie, I really appreciate your kindness.

Live it Up

Lots and lots of layers on this one, and my favourite papers from the sweetheart range by Bo Bunny. I used my new Martha heart border punch - I can see that I am going to use this a lot, all year round, it's so pretty - and some flowers that I won from Poppicrafts (love them). The live it up sentiment is a clear studio G stamp.

Apple of my Eye

Now you can't get much more simple than this. I printed the apple with sentiment from the Cutting Cafe direct onto a card base, then printed the apple again onto DCWV sparkly cardstock from the pocket full of posies collection and cut it out. Some pop dots to lift it up, a bit of ribbon and a bit of doodling, hey presto, finished, and I really like the effect as well. I am not very good at 'white space' cards, but always really admire them when I see them in stores, or when blog browsing, so this one is a bit of a departure for me, as I resisted the urge to add anything else, apart from a strip of very narrow ribbon, which in hindsight was a mistake, as it upsets the balance of the card with the apple centred perfectly. Hey ho, we all make mistakes, and it still works well enough for me not to tear it up.

One in a melon

Here is the latest download from the Cutting Cafe, a great set of fruity greetings.

I simply printed the melon out and trimmed it into a rectangle, stitching around it before layering onto a black panel. Lots of juicy green, red and black layers - I used the Martha Stewart embossed zigzag border punch and the flowers are from Poppicrafts. My signature wobbly stitching and voila.

Just for You - Twinkle from Pink Petticoat

This little cutie is a new download from Pink Petticoat, isn't she sweet? I coloured her with copic markers, added lots of my favourite sparkling ice glitter (great impressions) and used the stampin up ticket punch on the corner of the panel before mounting it onto black card. The base card is covered with a panel of glossy black and white paper by SEI, then a smaller piece of swiss dotted and stitched red card. Some buttons to finish and she's ready to go.

Love You - for Bitten by the Bug and Colour CreateChallenge

The design team were asked to use the Love cut from the Home Accents cartridge, and to cut it in brown. So here's what I did. The base card is 5" x 7", the LOVE was cut at 4" then run through the cuttlebug using the swiss dots folder. I cut the aqua heart at 3 3/4" and added peach prima flowers with aqua gems in the centres. The stamp is a sitting Tilda by Magnolia stamps, coloured with copic markers and cut out. I put her to sit on the letter L. I punched strips of brown, peach and cream with Martha Stewarts doily lace punch. The word 'you' is done with Heidi rub ons by making memories. Click HERE to see all the design team's take on the challenge. I found a new challenge blog this week called Colour CreateChallenge, and this week they are asking for cards made using aqua and peach, so this one fits the bill perfectly. I so rarely manage to combine challenges, I feel quite proud of myself for combining these two this week, or at least I did until I went back and saw that the only other colour you are allowed to use is cream or white. Hmm, we'll have to pretend that the brown is a very dark cream then.

Basic Grey Challenge

This week the challenge on the Basic Grey challenge site is to use elements from two different basic grey collections. Here, I used papers from the Phoebe and Dasher collections. The butterfly is a kwikutz die borrowed from a friend (isn't it beautiful), the border is done with my new Martha Stewart punch that an online friend very kindly got for me and mailed to the UK. Thanks Jess. The sentiment circle is from the Cutting Cafe, backed with a nestabilities scallop circle, and the black scrolls are by Sandylion.

I am packing my case to go down to London tonight, looking after little Max for four days, so no crafting for me, although I have a word book to make for a friend and plan to take down all the stuff to do that, although it will be a miracle if I remember everything I need. I will probably get set up and realise that I have forgotten something really basic, like my trimmer. Hmmm, I feel a list coming on.....................

Oriental Themed Card for DCM

The dare on Daring Cardmakers this week is to make an Oriental themed card without using black or red. For this one, I used Great Impressions stamps, and the pink and brown papers are from the Huge Funky Love download from Funky Hand. I paper pieced the sweet little geisha and the fans and dotted some gems around.

Two More Cupcakes

Here are two more cards made using Regina's cupcakes from the Cutting Cafe. You can see that I used exactly the same papers for both cards. Some more of my spectacular wobbly stitching on these - I pretend that I am being arty and that it's all by design, but you know better, don't you.

I have had a flurry of emails asking me to be peoples 'friends' on facebook. Of course I said yes, because I only joined at the insistence of my friend Anne, who has about a zillion friends on her facebook. For ages I was stuck at four, Anne, her two daughters, and my own daughter. How pathetic. I got quite paranoid. How could a really nice person like me have so few friends? Then these emails started coming, some of my crafting blog buddies, and some people I have never heard of in my life. ***** ****** has asked you to be her friend, intones Facebook. YES I reply joyfully, although I haven't a clue who she is, at least she is a friend now and I don't look like such a sad and lonely person. I must admit to failing to see the point of social networking sites like Facebook, what's wrong with sending an email to someone if you have something to say to them, or (revolutionary idea this) pick up the phone for a chat. All this writing on peoples walls is totally beyond me. At the last count it said 'Enfys has 30 friends'. Well, in anybodies book, that looks better than 'Enfys is a saddo, who only has four friends in the entire world :)

Huge Funky Love - 60th Birthday

These papers and the 6 0 numbers were printed out from the new download from Funky Hand, called Huge Funky Love. It's just fabulous, all my favourite colours of pinks and browns, and the letters are there just waiting for you to make your own word books. I mentioned that Anice premiered her new CD on Ideal World TV here in the UK, well, it sold out within minutes, so if you were unlucky and itching to make your own word books, pop along to the site and pick up this funky download now. Lots of brown stitching on this one, the brads and sticker letters are by papermania UK. The colours are slightly 'off' the light is terrible here today.

More Scrap Cupboard Photos

So we went to Ikea and got a few things to use up the last square inch of space in my cupboard - i.e. the wall. I got a couple of long rails, as you can see my Martha Stewart border punches fit nicely along the top one, and on the second one I hung all these little pots to take things I use all the time - scissors, glue dots, pens etc etc. Then I had a lightbulb moment and bought a towel holder to slot ribbon spools onto. Of course, when they were on, the rails no longer slide together, but it is in a corner and works just fine. I have space for another one to take the rest of my ribbon, but of course this one was the last one in stock. So I am pretty well set up now, and it works very well as a space for me.

I hate the whole Ikea experience though, I know it's clever marketing, but I really dislike following those arrows, feel like Dorothy following the yellow brick road. My dear husband is not a shopper at all, hates it in fact, and had never been to Ikea before. 'Look at the prices' I marvelled, wondering how they could produce a wooden shelf for £1, 'I know' he replied, shaking his head in amazement 'it's terrible how expensive everything is these days'. If we do go shopping together in our town, he asks which shops we are going to, 'well, we need to go to Boots, then Dixons, then House of Frazer..........' it's all written down on a scrap of paper that he tucks into his pocket. Then when I deviate from the path, as I always do 'oh, must just pop into M & S' ......................... he whips out the list and says triumphantly 'IT'S NOT ON THE LIST' ............... as if that will stop me, he should know better by now.

Drum Roll..............And the Winner is...........

ROSY SILVERSON

Congratulations Rosy, you won the blog candy. Email me at

enfysc@yahoo.co.uk

with your address, and I will get your goodies in the mail

Huge thanks to all of you who joined in the fun, over 400 counting the email entries I had, sorry I can't send out 400 prizes, one for all of you. The winner was chosen by the time-honoured and highly technical method of printing out the names, cutting them up, screwing the names into little balls and putting them in a pot. Rosy Silverson was the name Mike pulled out. One of these days I will get to grips with these random number generator thingies - or maybe not.

Basic Grey Birdie

This card was meant to be for the Daring Cardmakers dare this week, I pressed on happily with it 'use three pattern papers' they said 'preferably from different ranges'. So I made the card, sat back and counted the pattern papers, two. Oh bummer. The little bird is a stamp I got from my Funky Hand DT mate Lythan in a swap.

I think it was another senior moment, oh no, I can't count up to three now. Yesterday, in an email to her design team, Regina referred to a senior moment. Senior? Have you seen that girl's photograph? No, senior is when, like me, you go shopping for food, and come home waving a bunch of parsley. Honestly, this happened yesterday, I forgot the sugar, tea, milk and bread, but it was a very nice bunch of parsley.

Circle Card

This little circle card was cut with a template from the Cutting Cafe, the sentiment circle is from there too. The card was cut from DCWV nana's kids stack, in a spotty buttermilk paper, then I cut it again in vellum which I ran through the cuttlebug (swiss dots). The gorgeous little boy is a clip art image, click HERE to go to the site. I coloured him in with copic pens, and gave him a tiny paper flower to hold. I added some wide rickrack ribbon, cut a scallop circle for the sentiment with my nestabilities, and I was done. Simple, but I like it.

So the snow came, and as I predicted, the country ground to a halt. I know it made the news in America, you must think we are such wimps, can't deal with a little snowfall. In London the buses stopped running, and no trains were running in the underground. Chaos reigned. There was the hilarious (and cringe-making) item on the news showing Gordon Brown giving a luncheon for the Chinese government who are making a State visit to the UK. He apologised to them for the bad weather and said that our transport system doesn't deal very well with snow. (Indeed, the nation had noticed that little fact.) The Chinese Premier's response was to take his little translator box off, give it a violent shake, and reinsert the earpiece. Oh dear, still the same waffle...................can't be the box, must be the snow.

Valentines for the children - Scroll down for Blog Candy

This is my valentine for Kiki, which I did for the Bitten by the Bug DT challenge this week, which was to use the heart from Doodlecharms. I cut the heart twice, once at 4" in black with the scallops, then at 3 3/4" in plain peach. The elephant image is some clip art that I downloaded from the internet. I handwrote 'never forget, never forget' all the way round the heart, the word Ma is from a thickers foam alphabet, loves you are rub ons (heidi by making memories). My grandchildren call me Ma by the way. I love it, hearing their little voices calling 'Ma' when they see me is one of the great joys of my life.

Now I am not saying that Max is a little monster, but this is his card. I used the monster card off the wildcard cartridge, frankly it doesn't look much like a monster to me, more like a squared off tellytubbie, but as he's only 20 months old he will probably rip it up if he's allowed to, although my daughter in law puts all the cards I make for him into his memory box.

The Cutting Cafe - Blog Candy Post Below........

You may have noticed a new blinkie on my side bar, Regina Easter has asked me to join the design team at the Cutting Cafe, her new site where you can purchase printables to download and print. As Regina is one of my crafting heroes, I was delighted to be asked. I already work with her on her BBTB site, those of you who know her work will understand why I admire her so much. This card is made with the big frame, I printed it off and heat embossed the border in black, cut around the edges. Did you know that if you print something onto coated cardstock, the ink stays wet for long enough to emboss it? I then printed the inner, paler pink shaped piece, which fitted perfectly into the shaped card. The lovebirds were cut from the Joys of the Season cartridge at 3", with the blackout feature on. A couple of Martha Stewart punched borders, some ribbon and gems and I was done. These printables are perfect if you love shaped cards, but don't have a die cutting machine, or design studio, and of course you have them tucked away on your computer to use over and over again.

The papers are by DCWV, gems are Papermania.

I printed the frame with the dots again, but decided to use it just as an accent for this card. Such a striking shape, and I love those dots. The sentiment circle is another printable, I punched it out and added a nestability circle behind.

Yes, we have heat, I am toasty warm and happy. Just as well really, as we have a very cold snap coming with some snow expected. Mind you, those of you who live in northern parts of North America would laugh at the miserly sprinkling of snow we get, which inevitably brings the whole country to a grinding halt. Roads are blocked with cars that have skidded on the snow, the trains stop running because of snow on the lines, .....................HELLO, we know that here in the UK we can expect at least one snowfall a year, but we always seem to take a huge collective gasp of surprise when it happens, then collectively fall apart.