Another challenge done.....

I am quite impressed with myself, the 12th of January, and my new year resolution to join more challenges is still going strong (usually they only last until the 3rd  or 4th January. Mind you, I am in this one by the skin of my teeth, as Daring Cardmakers have a new challenge coming up tomorrow!


This week it's a colour challenge, and I followed it as closely as I could, although the blue I used was more blue than aqua. Never mind, it's the effort that counts. I used a script stamp by Hero Arts, dotted some ink spots around (French Foliage set, Stampin Up) and used a flower stamp by Penny Black. The sentiment is by Great Impressions

Here's a date for your diary. Craft day on QVC here in the UK, on the 17th January, and the TSV for the day is some fabulous new collectable and inspiring stuff by Craftwork Cards. Julie will be on air at midnight, 1 AM, 9AM, 12 noon, 3 PM and 5 PM - be sure to catch one of the shows to see lots of brand new kits

Now I have to go and start visiting about 140+ blogs from WOYWW, I'm a day late...

WOYWW and a Penny Black Challenge

Time for another snoop around the world at some crafty spaces, hosted by the amazing Julia Dunning at WOYWW. I managed to get around everyone last week, quite a marathon, but it really is fun, try it. You remember the plastic document folders that I found in Poundland (the UK equivalent of the Dollar Store in the USA). I decided they would make perfect holders for some of my stamps, which were crammed into two drawers and getting very jumbled and squashed. Finding the one I wanted was a frustrating job, with all the stamps from the drawers being tossed onto the floor as I searched.......If you want to see the mess I was in, scroll down to the previous post...

Here is a work in progress - I had lots of 'odds and ends' of stamps by different manufacturers 

I put the stamps on one side, being cling, or acrylic, they stick nicely to the plastic surface to keep them tidy, then I stamped a sheet of copy paper with each image in that box

One little drawback was that there was no room on the narrow box for a label, so I put a white dot coloured with Promarkers on the end of each one.... 

and made a little index sheet which I taped to the wall below the shelf where they sit. Nice! It has freed up so much space in the drawers, that the mainly acrylic sets that live there are no longer in danger of death by squashing

Time for a card. The challenge on Penny Black this week, was to case, copy) a most lovely card from one of the design team, Beth. I copied the photo to show you, but it has disappeared into the black hole that is my computer, and heaven knows where the image is lurking, so you will just have to pop over there and see all the great stuff that the design team come up with

I found this anonymous double sided paper when I was clearing out, and fell in love with it all over again. The sentiment stamp also resurfaced from the murky depths, so it was obviously meant to turn into a man card, and here it is. The stars were cut on my Cricut (George, good old George) and embossed using a Tim Holtz folder, again, miraculously appearing like a little gem from the depths - I have never used it before, and I LOVE it, expect to see everything embossed in stripes and dots for a while

That's me done for today, I'll be back tomorrow

Oh dear......

No card from me today, I have been far too busy sorting and shopping. I needed to go to Poundland among other places, and look what I found, some plastic document cases - see what I did with them later in the week. The packing tape was essential, I send off so many parcels, and I always get my foam pads from there, a bargain at £1

My 1 1/2" circle punch has broken, so I needed to replace that - unfortunately, not in Poundland

and here is my crafty cupboard BEFORE I started organising it. Hmmm.....

I finally got around to labelling all my distress ink pads - yes I know they should be neatly typed, but Martha Stewart isn't going to come around for tea any day soon, and as long as I can read them without trawling through the entire pile, which is what I have been doing, it works for me

Random thoughts from my shopping trip:

Why do Poundland sell condoms and pregnancy testing kits right next to the baby supplies, and on the same subject, would you really trust condoms and pregnancy testing kits from Poundland, and it's a bit unnerving that they sell one for prevention, and one for results right next to each other.....My advice is to stick to the cheap foam pads, go to Boots the chemist for your other supplies

Why are walking shoes called walking shoes? What are other shoes for? Tap dancing? Climbing? Running a marathon?

See you tomorrow, when order will be restored to the CC (crafty cupboard) and for the first time in my entire life I will be able to reach for exactly what I want when I need it.........   

Going Buggy Challenge

Okay folks, so here's the first challenge, I have made it simple, and you have a whole month to come up with a card or project using the main colours of

GREY, WHITE AND RED

(or Black,White and Red)

I listened to all your comments, and most of you seem to dislike the fact that some people have dozens of online friends voting for them, and others felt that a random draw didn't take into account the effort and time people have put in, so I am taking a deep breath, and hoping that I won't upset too many people, and, enlisting my sister Gwendydd and my friend Anne to help me (I haven't told them yet!), and together we will choose our favourite cards for this month's prizes. Please continue to give me your feedback on this - if you feel that you are a beginner, and feel intimidated at the thought of judging, please tell me, or any other reason of course. We can always alter it next month

Edited to say, as always you have all come up with the perfect solution - one prize will be judged as my favourite, the other one will be randomly picked. Perfect!

The very generous guys over at Letraset (thanks Paul) are giving TWO of you the chance to win a wallet that is custom made for your ProMarkers, PLUS a set of six Promarkers of your choice. As you see, the wallets hold 24 markers, fold into a stand, and are a perfect solution to organising your pens

Here's my card to start you off........

Please put your blog link - direct to the post with your card please into Mr Linky below, and please link back to Going Buggy in your blog post. I will be dropping by to see your creations. (If you are not used to doing this, just post your picture on your blog, click on publish, then click on the header of the published post. Highlight this URL in the address bar and copy, then paste it into the Mr Linky box. When people click on your name, it will take them straight to your challenge post)


 It doesn't seem fair that those of you who don't have a blog can't join in, so if you email me a photo of your card, I will add it to this post. There will be a link to this post kept at the top of the blog for a month - challenge closes on 5th February 2012


Can I ask please, that those of you who don't do challenges, but enjoy seeing the cards, please click on the links to go to the various blogs, and leave a quick comment. It would be so encouraging for those who have taken the time and trouble to take part.


Good luck everyone - get crafting

Email entries - Marlene Killey

Abby

WOYWW

The very first Going Buggy monthly challenge will start tomorrow, Thursday

Letraset are offering prizes to two winners so come and join in

I haven't joined in with WOYWW on Julia's blog for ages, if you haven't joined in with this, do have a go  it's great fun. WOYWW? It stands for what's on your workdesk Wednesday, and it's a chance to hop around all sorts of blogs and see photos of peoples workspace. This can be rewarding and frustrating at the same time. Rewarding in a smug sort of way because you realise that there are people out there who are even messier than you, frustrating because you see the most beautifuly organised spaces..... you will notice that my photos are pretty heavily cropped, that is so that nobody can see the utter chaos that is my desk

So, as usual there is a load of paper on there, I have been playing around with my Cricut, and cutting some borders and mats for stamping. I had the idea that I would make a great pile of them so that I would always have ready cut mats and borders to hand, but realised that I could spend the rest of my life cutting, and I still wouldn't have the right colours in the right shapes....

I found some pretty cuts though, see the grey one? It's a circle of butterflies, I have an idea for that one..... and I love some of the borders on the next photo. I was using Elegant Edges and the Circle Sophie cartridge for these cuts.  Mr Blogger is being particularly difficult today, and won't let me put the text where I want it, so you'll have to scroll down 
  

 Here's a very quick little card I made, using a Lili of the Valley image, I fancied a monochrome look, I find a lot of young parents aren't into the blue or pink thing, so I used grey - why not! 

I am entering this into three challenges (another new year resolution, to get out there a bit more)

Allsorts: New Beginnings

The Pink Elephant: Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly: Anything Goes

I am planning a kitchen makeover soon - not a new kitchen, just a makeover, new worktops, sink, hob etc etc. It's all at the planning stage, but look what I found in John Lewis sale, the perfect curtains for the french window - a cancelled order by someone who probably lives next door, as they are a perfect fit, and at half price I had to have them, although it is rather putting the cart before the horse.....I can see it all now, pale grey walls, lovely green plants,  splashes of yellow ......

See you tomorrow

Anyone fancy a challenge?

Today's card is an Urban Belle stamp, coloured with Promarkers and the flower is Tim Holtz tattered flower. The kraft card is by Papermania.

Promarkers used:

Face, blush and soft peach

jeans - pastel blue, denim blue, ice grey 3

hair - burnt sienna, cinnamon, tan and caramel

sweater and headband - sandstone, tan 

I've had a few emails about loading the cricut handbooks onto the ipad, so scroll down to the post, I have added a couple of things which I hope will make it clearer

Do you remember a while back when I was having a blog hop, one of the challenges was to make a card and post it here? Loads of you did so, and many have said they would like to do it again. So let's give it a try, and have a monthly challenge on here, there will be a Mr Linky for easy posting,  and there will be  prize for the winner. I will put a voting thingy on, and you can all vote for your favourites, or would you prefer a random draw for the winner? I want to try and gauge your reaction to this idea before I spend time setting it all up, so let me know what you think please

I had a little browse around the shops today (theres a novelty!), everything is on sale of course (those of you not from the UK, the January sales are a huge tradition here), but I wasn't tempted at all, although I did hesitate for a nano second over a pair of cashmere wrist warmers, a snip at £50 ($80). They looked as though someone had cut off the bottom part of a sweater sleeve, that was it, just a tube of knitting. So I picked them up, and thought 'nah, why should my wrists be warm when the rest of me is freezing......'  Do the buyers for these shops ever stop for a minute and think, really think, about their customers? Do they not think that we might have the brains if we need warm wrists, to go to the charity shops, buy an old sweater and cut off the sleeves?

See you tomorrow

Here We Go....

A couple of cards to kick start the new year, both made with the same stamp by Kanban, but with a totally different look. I am a fan of stamps which don't need a lot of colouring (as well as those that take hours of course...) for those quick cards, and really you can't go wrong with this little cow. I just added a bit of grey shadowing here and there. 

A couple of newsy bits for you. As you know I have been on the team for Scrappy-go-Lucky for a couple of years now. Mandy, the owner has become a good friend, but she has decided to concentrate her business in Australia at the moment (a new studio and distribution center) and has discontinued the UK and USA stores at present, so sadly I will no longer be on the design team as such, although I will be popping over there on a regular basis to see what those talented Aussie girls are up to. They have started a weekly challenge on the blog, hop over there to see what it's all about, and of course, if you live in Australia, there is no better place to shop than SGL!


The good news is that Mandy, Diane (Capadia) and I are all meeting up in Frankfurt for a craft fair at the end of this month, so I will be able to bring you all the latest and greatest news and crafty gossip from there.


Secondly, Nikky Hall of Polkadoodles (always an ideas gal) has come up with the brilliant idea of a challenge blog for kids under 16. It's called Diddydoodles, and if your child or grandchild loves crafting with you, do get them to join in the fun - hop over and see what the children have done, amazing stuff.


New year resolutions? Yes, I seem to have made hundreds in the run up to new year, most of them I forgot about today until I realised I had broken most of them by midday (cue for a shoulder shrug, ah well, there's always next year.....) The trouble with resolutions is they are so boring aren't they? They always seem to involve less of what is bad for us, but we enjoy, and more of the stuff that takes gritted teeth to like even a little.


I do have one that involves more - more hair. Let me explain, I have had short hair since I was a teenager, every so often I have the urge to have hair that I can toss with a shake of my head, so I have been trying to grow out the layers. I fancy a choppy bob, I have a picture of just the right style, and in my saner moments, I look objectively at it, and see that the model concerned is rather young - I have tins in my pantry older than her. However, I have suffered it for about 6 months now and I am still fairly determined, although I have very thick hair and it seems to be taking on a life of it's own. One consolation, if they run out of soldiers in bearskin hats for the Olympics in July, I can dye my hair black, they would probably hire me...........


See you tomorrow with more news and stuff
  

My Favourite Cards for 2011

Firstly, without sounding too soppy and sentimental, I want to say a big thank you to those of you who visit me faithfully, leave me nice comments, send me chatty emails and have become my online friends. Without your encouragement, there really wouldn't be any point in this blog, I mean, I really would have lost it, big time, if I spent hours rambling on about nonsense and nobody was here to read it! So thank you for another year - it's been fun for me, and I hope you've enjoyed it too

As usual, I've trawled through all the cards I've posted on Going Buggy over the past year, and come up with my favourites. I chose them because I was pleased with the way they turned out - either because of something I thought was original, the layout, the colours, the image, it doesn't matter why really, I just liked the end result.....coincidence, but they are almost all pink! 

January - Heard you caught a bug!

February - New Stamp from CHA by Stampendous

March - Sugar Nellie digi image

April - Easter for Papercraft Inspirations Magazine

May - for Craftwork Cards

June - Cricut Card 

July - Sugar Nellie digi stamp

August - For Papercraft Inspirations magazine

September - for Polkadoodles

October

November - for Polkadoodles

December 

Have you done a list of favourites if you have a blog? Leave a comment here, I would love to come over and see them.....

Is the champagne on ice? Anyone going to fantastic parties? I always find New Years Eve a bit of a letdown - even when I was much younger. There always seems to be a lot of hanging about, people looking furtively at their watches from about 10.30 PM on, then the big countdown, a quick chorus of Auld Lang Syne  (what is all that about by the way? Old who?)

and it's pretty much time to go home if you are over 30! Hardly seems worth the effort, I'd be just as happy at home with a big box of chocs and my slippers, except that this year we are going to be with very very good friends, and if I want to wear my slippers I can!

Ten, nine eight seven six five four three two one

 HAPPY NEW YEAR

  

Make a Wish........

I got back to my desk today, had quite a productive time up there, but the light had gone, so too late to photograph, so I am showing you two more cards from last month's Papercraft Inspirations magazine (on sale now in the USA). The theme was 'Quick Cards' and the brief was make a wish

The circles on this next one are really glittery. I matched the gems to the glittery circle, if I didn't have a match, I just coloured clear gems with Promarkers. The birthday cake punch is by Martha Stewart

I am loving my iPad - look what I did. I went to the Cricut website, clicked on information, then cartridge library

all the cartridges are listed (well, annoyingly they take ages to put the newer ones on there). I clicked on view in the right hand column for the cartridges I own, that opened the handbook

I sent them over to iBooks......TO DO THIS, CLICK ON THE TOP RIGHT SIDE OF THE PAGE AND YOU WILL SEE THIS ICON

CLICK ON 'OPEN IN iBOOKS - and here they all are in a virtual bookshelf 

You have to do each book individually, you can't do them all at once, but it only takes a minute to do

the pages show up just like the handbook, in colour and easy to read

This really will be a huge help to me, I really like to read the handbooks, in fact I have been known to take a pile of them to bed with me. I read them like saner people read the latest John Grisham, so now I can have a browse wherever I am, and I don't even need to be hooked up to the internet to read them. All I need is my little notepad and pen to jot down ideas - wait, I think the iPad can do that as well. Hmmm, one step at a time - I do promise that this will be the first and last iPad tutorial!


New photos of two little boys on the sidebar


I'll be back tomorrow with a round up of my favourite cards for 2011

Was it good for you?

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas - I certainly did, Santa brought me an iPad which I had been lusting after for ages, and Boxing Day saw the arrival of Max and Milo who kept us entertained and very amused. Photos to follow!

Here's a couple more cards made with the fabulous Kraft with Colour collection from Craftwork Cards - be sure to hop over there, they have a sale on at the moment

For this first one, I used one of the blank chipboard pieces in the pack, dry brushed it with white acrylic paint, and overstamped with the music note stamp. The heart was cut with the George cartridge

and on this second card, I punched holes to thread with ribbon through some of the circles intended to take the circular greetings, and used them as a border. The tiny flowers on the bottom were punched

The fridge is full of leftovers, lovingly wrapped in clingfilm or foil. They will sit there for about three days, and then get chucked out if past experience is anything to go by. I should shorten the process and chuck it out straightaway, but that seems so much more wasteful than the three day later rule! All those recipes for tasty turkey curry/turkey and ham pie/turkey soup/turkey stew, all seem to be a turkey too far for me, so, with a guilty conscience I do the turkey fling....