Sweet Meadow

Here's a clean and simple little card, made with flowers cut from the Sweet Meadow collection of papers by Craftwork Cards. I used the narrow sentiment strips to spell out happy birthday to you as the stems of the flowers.

Remember how I told you that I had made 'buttons' out of card candi? this is what is looks like close up

This is my favourite punching tool, by Martha Stewart, it has three different sizes of hole punch tucked neatly away in the rounded end, and uses a simple 'push down' method to punch your hole - and of course, you can punch anywhere on a page, unlike the hand held pincer type punches. If you haven't got one - well, I recommend it (especially if it is on sale :)

We fly back from Spain tomorrow, the only thing I could bring out with me were some stamped images, and about 3 dozen Promarkers, so I have spent a lot of time in the sun happily colouring away, and have done a couple of tutorials, so look out for some colouring tips very soon.

I hate to upset all you rat lovers, and those who believe in equal rights for rats, we put the stuff (rat poison) down on the rat run wall, it looked like pink playdough. The rat was last seen sitting with a lump between his paws, nibbling delicately at it. He hasn´t been seen since. Oh dear.

BLOG CANDY!!

Since I am having fun in the sun, for those of you who are waiting for holidays, still doing the daily commute, here is a chance to win some goodies to bring some sunshine into your day

Just leave your name at the end of this post, and I will draw a winner on Saturday 9th July. No rules, just that if you have a blog it would be nice if you mention it on there

Here is what is up for grabs

A great tag board book, 5" x 7"I bought one of these for myself as well, and can't wait to alter it......

A set of Martha Stewart inks - Aquarium

Mulberry paper mini roses in shades of lilac by Recollections

A set of 17 clear stamps by American Crafts with a baby theme - always useful for cardmakers, one thing is for sure, those babies keep on coming!

A Fiskars tool taxi, an ingenious little gadget with loads of tools tucked neatly away - perfect for crops or crafting sessions with friends

Some green and white bakers twine

Cuttlebug folder - Diamond in the Rough

So there we are, I hope there is something that takes your fancy in that little lot

Good luck

Vintage Rose birthday

Here is a card made with my favourite Craftwork Cards paper - Vintage Rose. I have almost used up every scrap of this collection, and it is now discontinued. My only consolation is that they keep bringing out new collections to replace old favourites. The stamp is by Woodware, coloured with Promarkers

Aren't these little matching sentiment buttons sweet? The edge punch is by E K Success

The sun continues to shine on us here in sunny Spain, how easy it is to forget that we will probably be wearing jeans and sweaters in a week's time when we return to the UK. There are loads of people from the UK here - living here permanently I think, they all seem to know each other judging by the calls of 'cooee Joan' echoing up and down the high street. I guess there is a ex-pat club somewhere where they all gather to drink gin and tonics each evening. One funny thing I have noticed is that if I use spell check on this computer, it highlights every single word, if I go to check the spelling, it suggests Spanish words that may be a good alternative, I may do a whole post in Spanish just for the fun of it to confuse you.......

See you tomorrow

Kraft and Pink

I have been having huge problems accessing the internet, I have no idea why, so a very brief post today. In answer to all the queries, no, Mr Ratty has not been dispatched to ratty heaven, he is alive, well, and scampering as usual. We have been trawling around the local markets, I now have a few more pairs of sandals than I came with, oh the agony of the overweight case looms........

I love the look of browns and pinks together. For this card I used loads of layers, kraft, white, pink......you name it, it's layered on there. The stamp is by Stampin Up, and the sentiment button is by Craftwork Cards

The image was stamped in Rich Cocoa Memento ink, I coloured lightly in pale pink, and added drops of liquid pearls to the centre

Lilac Birthday

I didn't know where I was going with this card when I started to make it, but it was one of those cards where you think 'well I got there in the end.......' Funny isn't it how some cards seem to put themselves together, and others have to be fiddled around with.

I used Tim Holtz tattered flower die for the white flower, and dumped gunmetal grey beads in the centre. The border punch (punched three times and layered) is by Martha, and the butterflies are from the butterfly round the page die, also by Martha Stewart, and available from QVC

The leaf is a cuttlebug die, I think it's from the Persia set, I quite liked the look of the little centres of the leaves left so didn't poke out the little pieces, just left them nestling there

We found some rat poison in the local supermarket, but now we are afraid to use it because a big grey cat has started to walk around the garden - maybe he's heard that there are rats about and wants to be in on the action. Anyway, we are afraid that the rat poison could be eaten by the grey moggy, so the rat run is safe for the rat to continue his patrol of the wall. I won't even tell you about the humungous cockroach I found in the kitchen last night, .........ugh! Apart from the unwanted wildlife, and a few dozen mosquito bites, I am having a lovely time...................

See you tomorrow

More Sweet Meadow

Here's two more cards made with the lovely Sweet Meadow collection from Craftwork Cards. The first one uses a lovely paper - can you see how the roses are embossed with a raised edge? The colours are so delicate and pretty, this card didn't really need any designing, I added one of the coordinating buckles and threaded a narrow sentiment through that. All I added, were drops of glossy accents to the leaves and flowers, they look just like dewdrops on the roses.....

and for the second card, I used the same roses, but this time they are off a regular sheet and not embossed. I cut three of them out................

and ran them backwards through the xyron to apply a nice coat of adhesive, then dumped glitter on them. They look so pretty

We must do something about this rat...........he is getting bolder and bolder, sitting on top of the wall staring thoughtfully at us while twitching his whiskers. He doesn't even scamper off when we go right up to him and clap our hands! I half expect him to start stamping his feet and squeaking 'OLE' at us.............

Red White and Blue

The challenge on Polkadoodles this week is

Red White and Blue

It is also our stashbox stamp week, which means the design team can use any make of stamp for their card. I picked this adorable little girl by Lili of the Valley, coloured with Promarkers.

I had this idea in my head that I wanted to use the papers from the Fathers Day download from Polkadoodles for a pretty, girly card, I think it worked - do you?

I find when using red markers that the colouring can be overwhelming on something like a dress, so I just shaded in very lightly and used my blender pen to even it out - it gives the impression of red without dominating the image

The sentiment is by Stampin Up

Sweet Little Girl

My card today is a Lili of the Valley image, she actually came ready coloured, they do these sheets of all sorts of different sizes in printed images, perfect for quick cards when you haven't got a lot of time to colour.

I used a base scallop card, and some gingham papers from a stack by The Paper Company. I pleated a strip of paper to make a ruffle and added some mosaic tile gems to that. The sentiment is by Stampin Up

I thought this would be a nice card to send someone who is having a hard time for whatever reason - I always think that a homemade card is one of the nicest things you can give to show that you care

The weather here in Spain is wonderful, we see that the UK is due to have a heatwave starting this weekend - inevitable really, it always gets hot and sunny as soon as I leave the UK. They should really put helpful little signs on at the end of each long-range weather forecast..........

June 19th - July 5th heatwave expected, Enfys has left the country. Safe to arrange barbecues, trips to the seaside, painting the outside of your house and any other external jobs during this time. Please note that the weather will revert to cold, damp and rainy on the 6th July

We are spending a lot of time lazing by the pool, it would be a lot more relaxing if we didn't see a rat running along the top of the wall alongside the pool at regular intervals during the day - yes, a rat, definitely not a squirrel, or a mouse, a very ratlike rat..........

See you tomorrow

Clean and Simple - Happy Wedding Day

Have you used these new punches by Martha Stewart? You can position them anywhere on a page, and punch away to your hearts content. I found it helpful to mark the back of your paper with pencil where you want to punch. Put this paper onto the bottom piece of the die, turning it upside down to make sure your pencil line shows, then simply place the top of the die on top, and be prepared to jump out of your skin the first time, it is held in place by four very strong magnets, (the gold spots in each corner of the base) that snap together with quite astonishing strength.

I have an idea for a scrapbook page using this punch, I thought I would punch a sort of curve of butterflies going from the bottom left, up to the top right, then I am going to put different coloured cardstock behind each one, and stitch trails along the paper - I thought it would make a really bright and breezy summer layout, probably of Kiki. What do you think?

This card really is clean and simple, but I like the finished effect. I used the punch anywhere on the page Martha Stewart heart punch that QVC sent me to review - the order line is 0800 50 40 30

I simply punched the heart, and found some gorgeous acetate which has a criss cross of gold on it, which I put at the back of the heart. I used a pre-shaped card and white pearly card candi from Craftwork Cards, and heat embossed the sentiment (an old one by Hero Arts) in gold

Today is my sister's birthday, I don't think I will be able to call her from Spain, so Penblwydd Hapus Cariad (that's Welsh for Happy Birthday....) Have a great day Sis. Love you xx

Funny Girly Cards

Before I left the USA, one of my Thursday craft group friends brought in these stamps - I forgot to make a note of the manufacturer I'm afraid - and I found them perfect for making very quick cards for girlfriends

I always think this sort of card is best with a very minimal sort of look - let the image and sentiment do the talking - so they were really quick to do, and I used the same hot pink, black and white cardstock for all of them

The base shaped cards are all by Craftwork Cards - the brads are wonderful Card Candi from the same company

Well, here I am in sunny Spain, we have just had a lovely leisurely lunch, accompanied by lots of vino and diesel fumes from all the vespa scooters roaring past. The parking in mainland Europe always amuses me, they take no notice at all of where they are supposed to park, and if there is no other space, climb onto the nearest pavement. Walking is a hazardous business!

See you tomorrow

Sweet Meadow

Look what came in the post - this month's totally gorgeous pack from Craftwork Cards called Sweet Meadow

This is just up my street, I always love the colour combo of fresh green and pink, and of course in the monthly pack you get all sorts of goodies - tags, label shapes, buckles, sentiments just to name a few. A lot of you ask about Card Candi, they are the little round shapes you see in the foreground of the photo below - gorgeous little domed shapes of cardstock, available in every colour under the sun, none of the hassle of brads, just pop them on with a little foam pad. They are much, much cheaper than brads as well, you get hundreds (well, a lot) in a pack, I love them. They are available in the USA now as well if any of you want to try them - try Scrapbook.com

These are the first two cards I made, using nothing but one of the papers and some buttons and thread - I love that very narrow sentiment strip as well

For this second card, I wanted to add real buttons over the printed ones on the paper, and didn't have any in the right colours, so I punched two small holes in card candi, they look just like buttons, and add the dimension I was looking for. I cut a couple of the flowers out of another sheet and popped those on, bending the petals a bit to give some life to the flowers

As you read this, I will hopefully be on holiday in Spain. I am taking my laptop, so hope I can keep in touch while I am there, but I have scheduled posts that will pop up while I am away.

OLE!

Pretty Things with Wings......

The challenge over at Polkadoodles this week is

Pretty Things with Wings

So I used two of my favourite things, the Sundae of Seasons CD, and my Cricut

I cut a base card to 6 x 6" in pink cardstock, then cut one of the book cuts from Elegant Edges at 6" in brown. The flower was one of the scallop shapes - I used swiss dots embossing folder to add a bit of texture to the centre. The butterflies were printed from the Sundae of Seasons CD, I gave them wire antennae, and popped them on with foam pads

a bit of bling and I was done

If you took part in the Polkadoodles blog hop, be sure to go over there, there is a full list of all the winners from each of our blogs, let's hope your name is up in lights

Well, this week has been a bit of an event. Apparently I have had 'a touch of pneumonia' so the doctor says. How can you have 'a touch ' I wonder, it seems to me that you either have it or you don't. So no crafting has been done - no ANYTHING has been done, but today has seen me up and dressed so, tomorrow will be better. I still blame that man in seat 10A! Thanks so much to those of you who have sent me emails with get well wishes, I really appreciated them, and the E cards as well. You are such a nice bunch xx

My Winner of the Polkadoodles blog hop is

KISATRTLE

Congrats, email me with your address and your goodies will be in the mail. Thanks to all of you who took part, and don't forget to check the other blogs as you could still have won - the full list will be published on the Polkadoodles blog on Friday

No card from me today again - I have been laid so low with this evil plane bug - just as I think I am getting better WHAM it comes back with a vengance. I got some new antibiotics from my doctor today so I am really hoping that they will do the trick, but in the meantime I have no energy and everything is a real effort. Hopefully I will be back to my usual chirpy self very soon

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

Using up bits and pieces.........

Those of you with eagle eyes may recognise this little lady - she was an image I coloured on one of my Promarker videos HERE - as I was clearing up in the USA, I found her all forlorn in a folder so it was high time she made it onto a card.

The papers are all by Heidi Swapp, and I covered a shaped edge card from Craftwork Cards - the tiny sentiment label is by them as well. The label die is by Nellie Snellen, and I added some stitching in pale pink to the layers

I found these jewelled thingies on sale in Michaels, I had no idea what I would do with them, but they make a pretty flower center don't they?

Letraset are having a great competition to celebrate having 1,000 followers on Facebook. Go HERE for the details

I have been battling with a great backlog of blogging, I know some of you have given me blog awards, please don't think I am being rude, I just haven't had a minute spare really, and to cap it all I have the dreaded bug that I seem to pick up so often after a long-haul flight, and have been feeling really quite lousy for a couple of days. I just knew my instincts were right and that I had every reason to glare at that chap on the plane who was snuffling and coughing for seven long hours. No amount of that spray stuff that is supposed to protect you would work against Mr Superbug himself in seat 10A. Hey ho, the joys of living the high life.......

Another Embellished Floral......

Here's another card made with Embellished Florals, a bit brighter this time. The cuts are amazingly detailed - they remind me of those stamps you can get where you cut away the layers and stack them up - medallion stamps I think they are called. Of course, using the Cricut means that you don't have the faff of cutting out

The base card is by Craftwork Cards, border punch by Martha Stewart and the sentiment is by Stampin Up

I had a coffee experience yesterday, one that will be familiar to everyone. I was sitting in the sun sipping my latte when a woman asked if she could join me. An hour later I was still there, itching to get away, but we had only got up to Chapter Ten of her life history, and still had five chapters (including another divorce....) to go. Is it me? Do I look like some sort of sympathetic agony aunt who will sort out their messy lives? Or will they bare their souls like this to any captive coffee drinker? I think I need to stop making eye contact - or maybe stop drinking coffee in public!

See you tomorrow

Embellished Florals in White

Just before I came back to the UK I caved and bought the Embellished Floral cartridge for my Cricut. I had resisted it because the handbook shows really hideous combinations of colours, and it wasn't until I had a good look and imagined the cuts done in tonal shades, that I realised that the cuts really were very pretty, so for this card I rebelled totally against the strong colours and used all white......................

Butterfly cut at 3" - I wanted it BIG and I added texture with a swiss dots embossed layer, and added lots and lots of pearls (oops, just noticed the pearls from the antennae have slipped). The butterfly was cut from white pearlised card which has a subtle sheen

The base card is by Craftwork Cards, and the sentiment label was cut using Elegant Edges, and a Stampin Up stamp

I have had such a busy weekend with the children - yes, I took lots of photos but haven't had a chance to edit them yet. Kiki danced beautifully bless her, the babies greeted me joyfully so they hadn't forgotten me, and Max immediately wanted a trip to the park (in the pouring rain....), so all was well

I do hate driving in London though. It's a very nippy sort of place - people nip in and out of lanes, zipping in front of you and behind you. I need to go on a nippy course, I dither and miss the moment, so dither even more, indicator blinking madly - giving rise to the dreaded London toot. They are great tooters down there, hesitate for a moment and they all start tooting their horns like mad. So I drove, and dithered, and in a cacophony of toots found my way around, and eventually, exhausted, back home

See you tomorrow

Sshhhh it's a secret challenge.....

The challenge on Polkadoodles this week is

SECRET

(set by Nikky, you might know that she would come up with something different!)

By that, she means a secret surprise element on your project, go HERE to see all the lovely secrets the design team came up with, and for details of the blog hop, which has been extended for another week because of the blogger problems over this past week (people have been unable to comment) so we have extended the finish date until noon GMT (7:00AM EST) on Sunday 12th June

Click HERE for my original blog hop post to leave a comment if you want your name entered for the prize draw. Only comments made on that post will be entered

I decided to make a gift card box as my project for this week, using papers from the popular Sundae of Seasons CD - the bees, hive and honey pot are from the CD as well.

Here it is closed........

and when you open it a little gift card holder pops up

there is room to write a message below, and the drawer lifts out to take a surprise present

Still unpacking like crazy here, and later today I have to pack another case to take down to London. I seem to be living out of suitcases lately. The garden has had a few hours work today as well. I had a lovely water feature - a tall Ali Baba type terracotta urn with water spilling gently over the top onto a bed of pebbles. I noticed it was totally dry, and when I looked, the bottom of it has snapped neatly into four. So that's the end of my gently trickling water, but I have rescued the pot it's far too nice to throw out - even if it is bottomless. Looks good in a shady corner, I daresay the pest squirrels will use it as their pantry and fill it full of acorns

And talking of Giraffes.......

I seem to have been in a giraffe type of mood last week. Here is another big G card, made with another oldie and goodie stamp. Of course the stamp is in the USA and I am back home, so I can't remember the maker

I stamped him with memento tuxedo black ink, and coloured with Promarkers. More stitching - this time I used a straight stitch, then changed to zig zag, then back to straight. Looks interesting, or it would if it wasn't wobbly..........

The Cricut E2 caused a bit of a furore in Newark airport. I had it in my hand luggage, didn't trust the hold for such a precious bit of kit. It went through security with no problems in Tampa, but in Newark, alarm bells rang! It went through the x-ray machine THREE times, I watched them manhandling it with my heart in my mouth. Then a security officer came over....'what is this exactly?'

I explained.

'Well I do scrapbooking' she said ' and my friend has a Cricut, it looks nothing like this one'

Gulp

So I explained again, trying madly to remember the workings of the E2, which I haven't used yet...........

'Wait here please'

She made a call, we waited......

Then another security person turned up

'ooh, the new E2' she squealed ' I wanted to see one of these'

So after a friendly discussion on the best cartridges, I was free to go

After a red eye flight with only a little doze to keep me going, my eyes are closing as I write this, so see you all tomorrow. By the way, I am freezing, it was only about 62F (16C) today, a bit of a shock to the system