Office Supplies for Practical Scrappers

Today is my first challenge as part of the design team for Practical Scrappers - a challenge blog specifically for showing cardmakers, scrapbookers and all crafty people how to use those supplies we all have lurking around, what a great idea. This week, the challenge was to use office supplies. For this card I used an adorable new image from Lily-Boos Boutique, coloured with copic markers. The graph paper was torn from a book, I used staples to fix the ribbons, and a label maker for the sentiment

I fixed two of those spiral paperclips in the middle of some looped ribbon

The second card was made using flowers made from a yellow legal pad, I just tore out circles, curled up the edges and layered them together, adding a button in the middle of a spiral paper clip in the centre of each flower



They look really messy, but I love the funkiness of these flowers

another paperclip in the centre of the bow, with a piece of string taken from a manilla postage tag

Whilst we were on the subject of office supplies, I thought this card would stand another airing,
it's one I made quite a while ago, the little paint rollers are made from paper clips, look closely at them and you can figure out how to make them. I rolled black paper strips for handles, and coloured strips for the rollers

You can tell I was in the USA when I made this, look at the way I spelt colour! Why don't you hop over to the site and see more inspiration on how to use office supplies

We were sitting out on the lanai the other evening, and there, sitting on the arm of my chair was this little frog. He seemed quite unafraid, and just sat there looking at me. What a cute little chap, I was quite fond of him by the time he decided to hop off

I was standing waiting to pay at the supermarket yesterday behind a young woman, and her adorable little girl of three - a little golden haired poppet with huge blue eyes. She looked at me, with that serious look little children have when they are weighing you up. "I'm Hannah, and this is my mommy" she announced. Of course, I started talking to her. After a while she said "you talk funny".......................................long pause.........................."MY gramma doesn't talk funny"

Well done Hannah, on recognising a UK accent, and also, depressingly, on being able to spot a gramma when you see one

Lola - Friends birthday card

Nikky from Polkadoodles sent me this little stamp as a gift, and I couldn't wait to ink her up. She is Lola by Rachelle Anne Miller

I don't usually 'do' purple, but I like the way this turned out, the papers are from a DCWV stack, I think it's the Nanas Kids one. The border punch is Swiss Cheese by EK Success. The sentiment is an old one by stampin up, I don't know what set it's from. I stamped the image again onto the gingham paper and cut out just the gift from that.

The flowers are prima, I inked the white one a bit
I have been working hard on some magazine stuff that I can't share with you until February, let's say there are a few hearts sprinkled around on the garage floor...... I find it very disorientating working out of season. I was singing Christmas carols in July and wishing people a happy new year in August.

I am just getting ready to post some blog candy
Be sure to pop back in the next couple of days to see what I am giving away

Polkadoodles Day

It's Friday, time for another Polkadoodles challenge, this week, it's a sketch (which I forgot to put on here, but that gives you a good reason to pop over to the site to see what all the DT have come up with, some wonderful creations on there this week). This card practically made itself, Nikky's designs are so easy to work with. I used my favourite papers from my Candy Doodles CD, and a couple of her new stamps, which complement the range. The tree is a stamp, and I added some buttons, just for fun, and parked the dog at the base of the tree - he looks as if he is debating whether to lift his hind leg :)

The sentiment is from the stamp sheet as well. It comes as a rubber sheet of unmounted stamps, I didn't have any mounting stuff, so I just cut out the stamps I wanted to use and stuck them onto an acrylic block with a glue stick, they stamped perfectly. There are downloads to be won each week, so why not join in the fun, the design team love visiting all the blogs and seeing what you have created
I can hardly contain myself, feel a bit like the dog at the base of the tree, because I know that I have the new 'Not for Girls' CD in the mail, should arrive any day now. I haven't seen the images yet, and can't wait, a whole CD with men's stuff on it. What a great idea

Thanks Rufus for telling us that the stamp from yesterday - still sizzlin - is by Art Impressions, and you are right, the sentiments are great. As well as the sizzlin comment, there is one that says 'smile, it's cheaper than a facelift' - now that is one that I will find a use for!

Still Sizzlin - Anniversary card

I found these fabulous acrylic stamps called Golden Oldies made by a company called Ai

I just love this image, they look quite smug - his apron isn't very clear in the photo, it says " kiss the cook"

Coloured with copics, and I embossed the background with the hearts folder - well, it is an anniversary card, and added a bit of random stitching.


I will be sending the halloween cards to



Jennie (jcscraphappy)



Email me with your address Jennie, and they will be on their way to you



Today is a special birthday for one of my crafting buddies here in Florida



Happy 50th Birthday Cheryl xx

I haven't been able to blog hop and visit you all as I usually do, I will in the next few days, promise, I just have rather a lot on at the moment, some magazine stuff and design team stuff to get done as well, so bear with me, keep the kettle boiling and the hob nobs out, I'll be along soon.......

Baby Girl Card

Isn't this stamp the sweetest thing? I can't remember who makes it, I borrowed it at a crop. The papers are by Heidi Grace, I cut the trees out and popped them on for dimension. The letters are my favourite American Craft thickers, which I got from Big Lots for a bargain $2 a pack - they cost a LOT more in the UK

I stamped her twice, once onto the white card, then again onto the pattern paper and cut her clothes out of that
I get a lot of questions about what size my cards are. My favourite size seems to be a 6 x 6 square, although recently I have been making some 5 x 7 as well. I know that in the US you have to pay extra for postage on square cards, I think it's an extra 20 cents, we don't have the same restriction in the UK - yet. I daresay that somewhere in the Post Office corridors of power, someone will have a light bulb moment any day now, and say 'hey chaps, we can make lots of extra lolly if we charge extra for square envelopes' - it's bound to happen.
.They did recently bring in a depth restriction in the UK, so if you take a bulky envelope to the post office, they solemnly push it through a plastic letter box slot, and always look really disappointed when your envelope sails through.

The Good Girls................ Fabric Card

It's been a while, so here's another Loralie fabric card. If you want to know your nearest stockist of Loralie fabric there is a button on the sidebar linking you to the site, you can't buy there, but there is a 'find your nearest stockist' button

Made in the usual way - roughly cut around the image, swipe the back liberally with a glue stick, stick to white cardstock and smooth down with a bone folder, leave to dry, cut out and use as you would any other image

I really love this sentiment stamp, it's made by Inkadinkadoo. I inked the edges of some white prima flowers, and added a bit of bling

This little lady looks to me as if she has far too much going on in her life to write a diary.......... she's obviously getting ready for a pretty hot night out

I have taken the plunge and ordered a Gypsy - lots of you will know all about the Gypsy, those of you who don't have a cricut machine won't have a clue - I don't have much of a clue either, I have a vague hope that it will put a stop to my lugging cartridges and handbooks backwards and forwards across the Atlantic. It's electronic, you need your computer to get it working, and it is, therefore, an absolute certainty that it's going to give me grief. Even though I have to wait for it to be shipped, I have already been and bought a cute little jacket thingy to put on it when it arrives. No matter that I won't have a clue what to do with it, at least my machine will be well dressed. Another 'watch this space' moment

Does anyone want some Halloween cards?

I have these halloween cards that I have made for various design teams, and they are up for grabs if there is anyone that has a lot of children to send halloween cards to. I am in the USA at the moment, so to allow for the mail, it would be better if you are in the US too! Leave a comment at the bottom of this post, and I will pick a name out of the hat (if more than one person would like them) on Wednesday evening, hopefully get them in the mail to you on Thursday. They will all come complete with envelopes

A Fairy for Cute Daisy May, and a Monster for BBTB

BBTB day today, and Regina (who knows how to set a challenge!) asked us to use the monster cut from the Paper Dolls cartridge. I had found these ready made spiders web cards in the dollar bin at Joannes, so as I was short of time used that as a base. The paper doll and monster costume was cut at 4", once in black, and the head part twice in green, I sandwiched a pair of google eyes in between the two green layers. The spiders were cut from the same cartridge, at 2" and given some googly eyes

The trick or treat sentiment is from the halloweenies download from Polkadoodles

and the inside of the card is lined in another halloweenies download, with a strip of drippy goo at the top


On Cute Daisy May, the challenge was fairies, and I chose this little cutie, coloured with copics and perched on a folded over prima flower









the papers are all by MAMBI, the ribbon is Martha Stewart and I threaded some pearls through the knot

The sentiment circle is a chocolate button from Craftwork Cards in the UK




I always phone home on a Sunday whilst we are here in the USA, to catch up with my kids. Yesterday my little granddaughter aged 5 was in a chatty mood

"I made a fruit salad for my homework Ma"

"Did you darling, how lovely, did you eat it?"

"Don't be silly Ma, I only drawered it"

"Oh right, I see, and what did you draw?"

"A banana, an orange and a pineapple"

"How clever, a pineapple is very hard, I don't think I could draw a pineapple"

"Don't worry Ma, next time you come to play with me, I will show you how to draw a pineapple. The pointy bits are quite hard, but I will show you how to do it"



so watch this space, soon you may see a card with a beautiful hand drawn pineapple, because I am getting a lesson on how to do the pointy bits.............................

Snowman for Lily-Boo and a rather bright card for Colour Create

Over at the Lily-Boo Boutique, Sam has come up with the most gorgeous set of Christmas stamps, lots of different images in baubles

I chose to do the snowman, you can see he is glittered rather a lot, I coloured the image, then covered the whole thing with glossy accents, and whilst that was still wet, sprinkled Martha Stewart snow glitter on it. The stars down the side are a MS punch, and the snowflakes are cuttlebug and sissix dies

He is such a shiny little chappie.........
I found these letter tiles lurking in a clearance bin, well I couldn't leave them there could I?

The challenge on Colour Create is to use black, white, red and yellow, with the optional extras of flowers and checks. I managed everything but the checks. This is a very simple little card, but for some reason, it really appeals to me. I covered the front of a 6 x 6 white card with the black spotty paper, and just cut squares for the house and roof. The floral paper is by autumn Leaves, rather an orangey red, never mind, and the bird is from the 'Peace' Christmas set by Penny Black



more of my favourite little letter stickers by Making Memories, and the sentiment is by Great Impressions (I think)


The weather is very very hot here in Florida, and the humidity is quite punishing. Usually by this time of year it has cooled enough for the humidity to drop, but for some reason at the moment, it is like living in a pressure cooker. A man on the Weather Channel tried to describe the phenonemon, but I was so mesmerised by his backcombed and laquered hair that I didn't take in the detail
Now a knickers story (panties to my USA friends). I have found a brand that are really super comfy, especially in this heat, nothing fancy, plain soft white cotton but they are cut so that they actually have room for your bum (butt), which M & S in my experience sometimes fails to do. They sell them in Walmart at super cheap prices, so off I trot and gathered up armfuls. It seemed logical to buy a size up from my dress size, allowing a bit extra for comfort. Wrong. Big mistake. Huge. If ever I was knocked down by a car whilst wearing them, the paramedics would die laughing themselves before they even got me into the ambulance (I was brought up by a mother who was of the generation that believed you should always be prepared - just in case you are knocked down by a car..... that little life lesson has never left me..). So I put them on, hitched them comfortably under my armpits, and thought, hmmm, I think I may have got the sizing just a little bit wrong here. So now I have to face Walmart again to change the dratted things - or maybe I could tie the 36 pairs I bought together, to make a hammock, and lie in that whilst I try to fathom out the mysteries of the weather man's hairstyle
Have a super weekend

Joy - for Polkadoodles

This week, over on Polkadoodles there is a sketch, and the Dt had to use papers from the Jingle Jangle CD and the brand new stamps. Mine is very simple, I stamped the flowers first on the green, then a couple of times on the red spotty paper and cut them all out

A bit of doodling, a bit of stitching, and some of the fabulous letter tiles, and I was done


Be sure to pop over to the Polkadoodles site to join in....



The winner of the Cutting Cafe tiny boxes is


KAYE

(Kayescraftyspace)




Congratulations Kaye, email me and I will send the file to you

Folds for Daring Cardmaker and Kraft for Allsorts

Over at Daring Cardmakers, one of my favourite challenge blogs, the dare this week is 'folds'. It's ages since I made a tri-shutter card, and after faffing around with this one I remembered why....... ! I played around with the folding, because I wanted the bottom central strip to fold over the front when it was closed, and to perch a Tilda on the side. If you play around, there are a lot of variations on the folds for this card.

I went to visit a crafty buddy Phyllis today, and she had had the brilliant idea of using Tildas to perch on one of these cards, so of course I could feel a scraplift coming on as I looked at it. Thanks Phyllis. Unfortunately, she won't start a blog, which is a great shame as her work is fabulous

Back to the card, I made the base from brown cardstock, and used various coordinating papers from a Martha Stewart stack to line all the little boxes

The colours are a bit off, their faces aren't orange in real life - it's the flash

The ribbon is a dark brown felt I picked up in the dollar bin at Michaels, and the 'brads' are card candy from Craftwork cards in the UK
and here's what the card looks like closed.
do a search for tri-shutter cards and there are quite a few you tube videos out there
The sentiment is stampin up - a bit twee, but it was the right size for the space! Believe me, whoever gets this will be one of my special mates, I don't faff around this much for just anybody :)


Next, a brand new challenge for me, Allsorts. I have seen loads of great stuff on this site, but have just never had the time to play before now. Their theme for this week is Kraft, so I made this...........


The kraft is actually a torn kraft envelope, the gorgeous giraffe (Rubber Cottage)was stamped in black and clear embossed, then coloured with chalks. I ran a tag through a corrugator thingy after stamping a few leaves on it
The papers are by MAMBI

Tomorrow is a bit of a craft fest, I am going to join a group of buddies for a session, but first it will be up to the pool for a swim, it's still reaching record high temperatures here. Please don't hate me, all my UK pals....
So I'll be back on Friday, Polkadoodles day

Halloween Wreath

I am really pleased with the way this turned out. I didn't do it for a challenge/design team or a magazine, I just did it for me, and had a lot of fun doing it!

I painted a 12 inch polystyrene ring with black acrylic paint, and wrapped it with 2" wide orange organza ribbon, then came the fun part, I cut a 12" spiders web from the paper dolls cartridge, and lots of little ghosts and spiders. They were all given googly eyes

I cut the word BOO from plantin, at 3", and shadowed it in black, then stuck some little ghosts and spiders to peek around the letters. I curved the spiders around my thumb, to make them more realistic looking
Everything was attached to the wreath with a hot glue gun, messy, but at least it holds stuff very firmly in place


Don't forget to leave a comment on yesterday's post if you want to be in with a chance to win the Cutting Cafe tiny box set

It's BBTB Day, a bow for Caardvarks, and WIN a cute download from the CC

The challenge over on the Bitten By The Bug site this week was to use the chandelier from the Home Decor cartridge.

I cut it first in a pale grey shadow, at 4", then twice in black, and once in ivory. I stuck on the layers with silicone glue for dimension, (I use pinflair glue, which you use with a syringe, it flows very easily, unlike some silicones which are very stiff) and used just the candles from the ivory cut

The background label is a Go-Kreate die, that I ran through the cuttlebug

The sentiment was computer generated, and I added some American Craft thickers for the word LIGHT

I wanted to make this card for the Caardvarks challenge which is ribbon, and played around with a ribbon background, but it was all a bit much, in the end a simple white organza bow finished the card off

The lace is real, and I added lots of black gems
Just look at these tiny boxes, I cut them from a new set over at the Cutting Cafe, you get the template for the box, and a whole sheet of different sentiments, done both in circles and plain text. The sentiments are gorgeous, 'something yummy for your tummy', 'nutty about you' and the two you see here are just a few examples
All the papers are by SEI, and the flowers are punched with a marvy flower punch





The little box below is just big enough to hold a couple of Hershey's kisses, or some M & M's - how great it would be to make one to put at each of your guests place settings at the Christmas table, and they are fast and super-easy to make
Edited to say I've had some bewildered comments from my UK blog buddies asking what are Hershey's kisses. They are a brand of chocolate here in the US, that come wrapped in a little twist of silver paper. M & M's are like smarties.


and the really great thing is, Regina has given me this set to give away. If you would love to win it, leave a comment on this post, and I will draw a winner on thursday morning




Mike has arrived, and yes, at the risk of being boring, I did get hopelessly and completely lost when going to fetch him. I won't bore you with the details, but it involved driving over a very, very long bridge with no way of turning back, in the complete opposite direction to the airport. He took one look at my flushed, tearful, dishevelled face, and said 'I'll drive home' - poor chap, he had been travelling for 15 hours by then, but..............
that man knows me so well..............................

Warm Wishes......

These stamps are from the Ollyphant range by Kars (a UK company). I bought five sets and have never used them, forgot all about them in fact.................until now. The papers are by MAMBI, and the little branch is a Martha Stewart punch called Autumn Branch

Mike flies in today, I can't wait to see him - just hope I can navigate my way down to the airport without getting lost, as you know, finding my way around is not my strong point, in fact I probably couldn't find my way out of a paper bag.....

Crimbley Doodles - It's Polkadoodle Day

This is the sketch for the Polkadoodles challenge this week, and we all used the Crimbley Doodles download. a lot of inking going on here, I cut the tree freehand, and the sentiment is American Crafts thickers. These papers are a pleasure to work with

Nikky is on Create and Craft TV this weekend, with her latest CD, a double one, which is a male themed Cd, I haven't seen it yet, but judging from the rave reviews from the rest of the team, it is simply fabulous

Off to experience an American Ikea now, I wonder if it will be a replica of the ones at home? I need some stogvands and bjirons (I made that up, but they could just turn into best sellers)