Petal Card Tutorial using Elegant Edges Cricut Cartridge

I did this tutorial a while back for a design team project over on Scrappy-goLucky - Mandy has closed her store now, so I thought I would share it with you

First I cut four cardstock circles with a fancy edge at 4 1/2" using Elegant Edges....

then cut two plain circles out of pattern paper at 4" - cut these in half 

Score your scallop circles down the middle........

and sharpen the creases with a bone folder..........

Stick the pattern paper to one half of the scallop circles.....

Now comes the tricky bit. Take one circle with the fold line going horizontally, and place another circle with the fold showing vertically so that it overlaps. Make sure your pattern paper sides are on the unglued sides.....

these next two photos show you where to glue......

and line up your pieces....

this photo shows three of the 'petals' in place - a photo is better than a thousand words!

and here I have all four pieces joined together.....

cut strips of card to make a pretty 'belly band' to hold the card closed

and here is what it looks like when decorated and finished,, the flower is stuck to the belly band, which slips off, I used the embellished floral cartridge to cut that....

and the petals open to show your message. I cut a scallop square to cover the joins on the bottom......it would make a pretty way to present a gift card, or slip some cash into a little pocket on the inside...

Don't worry if you don't have this particular cartridge (or a Cricut for that matter) you could use a circle cutter and cut plain circles, or use one of the many scallop circles available from the Silhouette store if you have a Cameo. 

Now I have to ask if anyone has been having problems leaving comments on here? I had a few emails a while back when I was running a prize draw, saying they were having problems commenting, but I haven't heard anything since. I have been looking at my stats and although there were 187 visitors here yesterday for instance from around the world,  (which is an average sort of daily figure, email subscribers don't show up in the statistics), there were only a very few comments, and this seems to be a trend lately, now this tells me a couple of things are possible:
1. My cards are rubbish! (sad face) OR
2. I am spending hours on here talking to myself. HELLLOOOOO anyone there? I have my faithful bunch of blog friends who, bless them, comment every single time I post so I know that not everyone has a problem, but I would really like to know if anyone is experiencing difficulty. It may just be that we all lead such busy lives that it's just a matter of time, and that's fine. But if it's broken, I need to fix it

While I am on this sort of subject, I have had a couple of people under the impression that I make money from Going Buggy. Nope, nada, zilch, not a penny, in fact I spend quite a bit of my own money sending out various prizes when they don't come direct from the sponsor. I do get products sent to me, and of course when you are on design teams you get all their latest stuff to make samples. Magazine commissions are done on a fee paying basis, and that can be quite sporadic,  but the blog itself earns no revenue at all, it's just for fun - which it is, and I love it!

See you tomorrow x 

Hoppy Birthday

Two pocket cards today, but before that, just let me rave for a few minutes - I went to see The Lion King last night and was totally blown away by the sheer originality of this wonderful show - if you have the opportunity to see it do go. It is the best stage production I have EVER seen. A riot of colour and jaw dropping costumes and stage sets. I have been on a real high ever since! In fact I am seriously thinking of getting tickets to take Kiki when she comes to stay with me in August.......

Okay, back to earth. During my massive tidy up in the craft cupboard, I found this very old Stampin Up set and decided it was time to give it an airing. I stamped the pocket onto denim pattern paper and added a couple of Card Candi 'brads'. Papers are by Bo Bunny.  The stitching is faux - I just doodled it on because I had hidden my sewing machine under a mountain of junk supplies and couldn't reach it

and this next one was made with the same set, I went for a very clean and simple look for this one. The paper is by Tim Holtz

So now all the hysteria about the new baby Prince George has died down, I do hope that this lovely young couple are given some privacy now to bond with their child - heaven knows, a first baby is a bit of a shock for anyone without the added pressure of having hundreds of cameras recording every movement each time the child is taken out for a bit of fresh air - I don't think we will be seeing Prince William driving bleary eyed around the block in the wee small hours of the morning with a screaming baby in the back of the car. Hands up all of you who resorted to the middle-of-the-night-car-therapy? I know we did! 

It did occur to me today that I have never seen a royal baby/child have a tantrum. How do they do that I wonder? I know that if I had had the eyes of the world trained on my offspring when they were toddlers that there would have been shocked articles in newspapers and TV programmes about the child who lay on the floor in the supermarket screaming for half an hour, or went totally rigid and refused to bend to be put into a car seat. Then there was the breath holding contests to see who would break first, baby or anxious Mummy (the baby always won that one). Ah, happy days, but I am pleased to report that these young  hooligans, toddlers have grown up to be nice, productive and pleasant people, and it's (secretly) rather gratifying to watch them having to deal with their own children's tantrums. What goes around comes around as they say......

See you tomorrow x

Just buzzing by....

 Here's a card made with the first stamp I ever bought - $1 from Walmart! The hexagons are dies by Simonsaysstamp and the papers are by Authentique

this has been such a useful little stamp - I usually stamp him direct onto the card, then again on white card which I cut out and apply with foam pads - that way I don't have to worry about cutting out the antennae. The trail was doodled afterwards......

Oh dear, just look at this mess. It all started when I was looking for the bee stamp and I decided to have a big reorganising session. Animals and bees should live together I thought, but instead of finishing one job and moving on to the next, I was pulling out all the drawers in a sort of frenzy. Sigh, I never learn.......

and in the middle of all this mayhem, I decided to play around a bit and try some blending colours for the new Winter limited edition ProMarkers. This isn't a definitive list by any means, I just wanted to find colours in the same 'family' for starters.....

I'm not sure I found the right 'family' for Firewood (the brown marker), I may try again with that one, but it gives me enough of a guide to start using them - the colours are quite delicious don't you think?

Summer gave way to rain today, but at least it was warm rain. I overheard four people saying 'the garden needs the rain'. It's only been 18 days of sunshine for heavens sake, we aren't exactly turning into the Sahara Desert - whatever happened to an old fashioned watering can, or garden hose? Friends from overseas will be amused to learn that there is a new black economy here - electric fans are sold out all over the country, so they are being offered on Ebay for prices about three times above their market value! In the main, none of us have air-con here, we just open doors and windows and let the air in, and we don't have ceiling fans either - the great British summer usually means bursts of central heating when it gets too chilly, not things to cool us down! Still, it has been lovely, and I am thinking of snapping up a few dozen fans when they are back in the stores (which will be about February probably) and becoming a fan entrepreneur, the only drawback to that plan is that we probably won't have another heatwave for five years or so and I will get pretty tired of tripping over boxes of fans when I am looking for a bee stamp...

See you tomorrow x  

On the inside looking out.....

Another memory box window card, this time I did a scene from the inside looking out. Someone asked for product numbers of the dies, I'm afraid I don't have them, I just look online for Memory Box and Poppy Stamps dies, there are loads of stockists, but I find Simonsaysstamp is very good in the USA (they mail to the UK as well), and I have always had good service from Oyster stamps in the UK.  The window is called Grand Madison Window, sorry I can't be more help on this

I used acetate behind the window frame on this one, and the white panel was sponged in a random way with stormy sky distress ink. The tree is the bare branch die....

I made a little pot plant from a cut-down Easter egg die!

What good news about the new baby prince - I felt quite sorry for Kate yesterday with the whole world urging her to push! I posted on FaceBook that I thought they would go for a victorian name like Prince Albert. Cue for some horrified comments from my kids 'you are joking mum?' and 'I take it you are being sarcastic mother?'
Well no, I thought Bertie sounded cute - until they told me that Prince Albert is the name given to a male piercing of a rather intimate nature. How was I supposed to know that? Well, well, you live and learn. Loads of bets have been made on the name apparently, I am so pleased that I didn't go into a bookies to put a bet on Albert being the name. Can you imagine?
See you tomorrow x

New ProMarker Colours....

 I have been away in London for a couple of days, but look what was waiting for me when I got back. The brand new Autumn Winter Limited Edition ProMarker colours. I haven't opened the pack yet, but I love the look of the colours, they are subtle and look gorgeous. I will have a look at them tomorrow and see where I think they fit with the existing colours....This is a sneak peek of the colours, they are not even on the Letraset site yet.  

As usual, they have come up with some enticing names - winter spruce, solstice blue, firewood, sugar plum, red sweater, frosted lake, pressed leaf, hearthstone, trick or treat, sleigh bell, frozen lake, iced pearl

So we were enjoying the sunshine in the garden and I told Max and Milo I wanted a nice photo taken of the three of us. What I had no control over of course, was the expressions on their faces. Milo is resigned, Max is showing off his latest superheroes look, so there am I, smiling fondly, imagining that a wonderful family memory is being captured.......boys!!!

Kiki was delighted with the lei I took her, and garlanded herself with them - note that she is the only one who is delighted to have her photo taken.....

unlike her little brother Monty, who decided he didn't want a photo at all - his daddy used to do this when he was little, strange what habits are passed on down the line.....

So it's another day in the sunshine today, as we go to a birthday party lunch in a friends garden. Bring on the Pimms...See you tomorrow, when I will be back at my desk x

Old Fashioned Phone

 There is something so lovely about this old fashioned phone die from Sissix - perfect for a note to a friend. I used papers by Authentique. The center ring around the dial was cut in white and I coloured it with Promarkers for a bit of contrast. The sentiment is one of those dollar ones from Michaels (I miss rummaging around in those dollar bins!)

Now I am sure lots of you know this trick, but here is the way I cut a banner type edge so that the angles are perfectly even... Fold your strip of card/paper in half, lengthwise

Take your scissors and cut down from the top edge at an angle....

Voila - a perfect banner shape every time. Just be careful not to crease the fold, just do it loosely so that you don't have a crease mark down the center of your paper

So like most women of my age, I visit my (very expensive) hairdresser every five weeks for a trim, and more importantly what they call a 'root regrowth' and I call 'covering up the grey'.
'I could do this myself and save some money' I thought as I watched them separate tiny sections of hair and brush the dye on. So I bought all the stuff, and set out to do it. I learned a few things...........
1. Do not wear a white tee shirt when you are applying hair dye, two reasons, one, the dye drips onto your clothes (it never does that when the hairdresser does it. Hmmm) and two, how do you get the tee shirt off over your head to step into the shower to wash off the dye...
2. Do not keep the tubes of hair dye in a rather stiff-to-open drawer in a bedroom with a cream carpet
3. Make sure that the lid is on the tube of hair dye, so that when you pull our the stiff drawer and everything shoots out of the drawer, you don't get a big brown splodge on cream carpet

So, was it worth it? Well I am de-greyed, but at a price
Cost of tubes of hairdye, little brush etc etc £20
Cost of new cream carpet for the bedroom - probably about £250
Cost of new favourite white tee shirt - £15

Okay, maybe it wasn't a great idea after all! 

Chevron Background for Letraset

So what have I been up to today? Making this card for the Letraset blog...

a work in progress - looks a bit of a mess at this stage doesn't it!

Go HERE to see the card I made, and while you are there, it would be lovely if you could leave a comment - Letraset are so generous with sponsoring lots of prizes for Going Buggy readers, and comments are much appreciated by the team there

I am busy gathering up all sorts of stuff to take down to London for a flying visit tomorrow, I pick up all sorts of bits for the children when I spot something they would like. There is a whole bag of flower garlands for Kiki salvaged from the tropical night on the cruise, a box of coloured pencils for Max, some glittery gel pens for Monty and Milo - I seem to be like a squirrel, hoarding little bits until I get to see them again, and I will probably pick up a few sweet treats for them today as well.  It's such fun being a grandma! 

Memory Box Bike

Last Memory Box card for this week, I used the same window and shutters as yesterday's card, but this time used the bicycle die as well....

the blooms in the basket are just bits and pieces I had left over from making the other cards....

I love the Tim Holtz 'texture fade' brick embossing folder...

So it was that time of the year again - time for my mammogram. Now, I am eternally grateful to the Health Service for making these checks, and sending out the appointments so efficiently, BUT - it's a bit of a palaver isn't it? Ours are done in a mobile breast screening clinic parked in a remote corner of the local hospital, so remote that you could wander around for hours trying to find it. Then when you are checked in, and undressed comes the fun bit. I once made a duck terrine where you had to put a plate on top of the dish and then a heavy weight on the plate to press it - I know how the poor duck felt now (except he was dead and mixed up with breadcrumbs and smoky bacon, and I was very much alive and kicking). I have a feeling that these machines may have been invented by a man, and if a similar machine was used to check the prostate, I think he would have a rethink on the design pretty quick.

 So you stand there, turning slightly to the left, a delicate part of your anatomy squashed flat between two huge metal plates, and they instruct you to drop your shoulders (which are somewhere near the top of your head because you are so tense) wrap your left arm lovingly around the monster machine, and grip a handle thingy with your right hand. It all reminds me of that game the kids used to play, the one where you have this plastic sheet on the floor and you put your left foot on the red circle, right arm on the yellow....except that (in our house at least) you kept your clothes on for Twister! You do all this, knowing that in a few minutes,  the whole thing will be repeated on the other side. Oh Joy!

See you tomorrow x

Sitting in the sunshine.....

Another Memory Box dies card today, I used the Grand Madison Window and shutters, the scallop curtains die, park bench, bare tree, grass and flower mound. All papers are by Authentique, and the flowers and foliage were cut in white and coloured with ProMarkers.

I really like this little scene, I would be quite comfortable on that bench watching the world go by, sitting in the sunshine with my book........

I hesitated before buying the curtains die, but I am so glad I got it now, the tiny edging is in perfect proportion to the window - I have used a Martha Stewart punch in the past, and the lacy edging is a bit big for the window...

I cut the bench out of kraft cardstock and distressed it a bit with vintage photo distress ink....

and the plant with little white flowers is really a bare tree die - I cut it out three times to make it look bushy, and cut off most of the tree trunk, the tiny flowers were cut with the flower mound die....

The number of people I heard moaning about the heat today, about twenty. The number of people I wanted to slap for moaning about being too hot, about twenty. I didn't of course (I was too hot to bother, and I am really a very tolerant person...). After the terrible spring we had this year, and a rotten washout of a summer last year, I would have thought everyone would be thrilled to see the sunshine, but obviously not. 

My sister hates the heat, I love it. Isn't it strange that two people who share the same gene pool should be so different. Why did she get brown eyes, and me blue? Why has she got a gorgeous singing voice and I sound like a frog with a sore throat? Why do I thrive in sunshine while she retreats to the shade? Fascinating stuff genetics. I look at my grandchildren and see tiny gestures, a turn of the head, a little expression of their faces and see glimpses of my parents, their great grandparents who had died before they were born. Right, that's my random musing for today, see you tomorrow x   

Memory Box Gothic Window

So I got out my Memory Box folder of dies, and to my shame there were about six dies in there that I have never ever used, although they have been there for ages. One of them is the large gothic window, and the matching arched window, I think I got it with a view to making some Christmas cards, but that obviously didn't happen last year - maybe this Christmas it will come in handy.... 

So I made this into a sympathy card, the cards we all hate making, but I like to keep a few in my box of cards. When you hear sad news, the last thing you feel like is making cards, so I like to have some on hand. I cut out the window arch and the gothic insert in black, and the arched window in white. I used a zyron machine to make the insert sticky, then added to to the white card. I coloured with ProMarkers, in quite vibrant colours, because I wanted it to look like a stained glass window in a church. The whole thing was covered with glossy accents, then I added the arched frame with foam pads. The whole window was stuck to the card with more foam pads...... 

and I really like the stained glass effect.....

For the next card, I cut out a pink vellum arch and used that as a base. This will be a christening card for a little girl - I will add her name to the bottom underneath the window.....

you can see that using the foam pads makes the window really dimensional....

Of course, now that I have rediscovered the dies, I have a few cards to show you. I am such a grasshopper! I leap around from stamping, to dies, to digital stuff, and don't mention the melt pot that hasn't even made it out of the box yet.... Anyone else out there who hops from technique to technique like me?

We had a lovely weekend, bathed in sunshine. We went to a pub with friends on Saturday night and it was so lovely to sit outside in the pub's pretty garden until almost midnight, and I didn't even need a sweater! 

See you tomorrow x

Cherryblossom Lane Winners

The winners of the Cherryblossom Lane giveaways are (drawn by random.org)

Monday:

CD - Mags

Stamp set - BethAnn M

Tuesday:

CD - Ellyscard Creatief

Stamp set - Patty

Wednesday:

CD - Sandra H

Stamp set - S. Bayles

Thursday:

CD - Jane Willis

Stamp set - Cheryl W

Friday:

CD - Nellie

Stamp set - Michelle V

Congrats to you all, please email me with your address, which I will forward to Polkadoodles so that they can send out your prizes

Those of you who didn't win, don't forget that Polkadoodles do free worldwide shipping for orders over a small minimum spend, and the CD's are very reasonably priced and excellent value for money

Just sharing a couple more of my Craftwork Cards jam jar shaped cards for those of you who can't click on the links to get to their blog. This first one was turned into a bird house after I thought the shape of the card looked a bit like a little house.... 

and this next one is my personal favourite - I love the way this turned out

The weather continues to delight, I have the weather for home and Hudson, Florida on my iPad, and today it was the same temperature in both places, the difference being that humidity in Florida was 80%, and here it was only 30%, so a much drier heat. It's set fair for at least another week, I am so enjoying it....

See you tomorrow x

Jam Jar Cards....

It's my turn to post over on the Craftwork Cards blog today, I decided to make as many cards as I could on one sunny day this week, using the new jam jar shaped cards, and I had such fun doing them, here are a couple for you to see, you can see the others HERE - I would love it if you could go over and see the others, and leave a comment if you have time

and here is a jar full of hugs! I cut a cross on the front of the card with a craft knife, then I was able to cut away the front, which I backed with acetate.....

I tried to make the hearts look as if they were tumbling about inside the jar, and piled them up a bit at the bottom. I added some sequins for sparkle...

I will post some more jam jar cards over the next couple of days, as I know some of you can't click on links from your phones

Sitting having my coffee today in the sunshine, two young women came and sat at the next table. I did my famous 'hide behind the sunglasses and pretend to be looking somewhere else' while I shamelessly eavesdropped on their conversation. They were laden with shopping bags and started pulling out their stuff to examine it. Apparently they had got a lot of bargains in the July sales, including the bikini top that one of them had snapped up for a pound, a bargain because the bikini was missing the bottom half apparently.   I was a bit bemused, I mean, I can understand some young thing snapping up a stray bikini bottom, all ready for those European topless beaches. But no bottom? The mind boggles. Perhaps there is a new European fashion that I haven't discovered - 'cover up ze top s'il vous plait mademoiselle, no, don't worry about ze derriere'.... If it is a new fashion, which I doubt, I think I will give it a miss, there is enough anguish in the world without me adding to it...

See you tomorrow x 

Day Five Cherryblossom Lane

Firstly I must apologise, I totally forgot to draw the winners of the two prizes last week. You must forgive me for not taking a photo of the random.org number generator, I have just been so busy and it all takes a lot of time. Without further ado, the winner of the Craftwork Cards download voucher is

Peggy T - Daily Grace Creations blog

and the winner of the ProMarker six set is

 Jessica - Jazzyjess's Joyful Journey blog

Congrats to you both, please email me with your details. For the markers, which are sent out by Letraset, I need full address and telephone number please

Right, back to today, you have another chance by leaving a comment under this post of winning either a CD or a stamp set. Don't forget you still have time to pop your name under all the posts this week for five chances. 

My last card for this week from the Cherryblossom Lane CD was made with the sweet rabbit hanging out her washing image, coloured with ProMarkers. The sentiment label is one I had printed out in my 'Polkadoodles box' and is from the Sundae of Seasons CD - you will find that the CD's are very interchangeable as far as papers, embellishments and sentiments etc are concerned. I do a lot of mixing and matching from various CD's 

Hasn't the weather been glorious here in the UK? Those of you who live in countries where you know that summer means sunshine and heat, probably wonder why we Brits waffle on about a bit of sunshine. We eagerly await summer and sometimes, like last year, it never really arrives, so to have a whole week of warm sun is enough to put a spring in our step and a song in our hearts. It is also a trigger for a mass sunbathing session, ouch, I winced today seeing the scarlet skin on show around our town. (My years of partially living in Florida have given me a very healthy respect for the power of the sun, although I love to sunbathe in moderation..) So as the weekend is set fair, we will, as a nation be celebrating the sunshine - we may not see much more until next year, so we grab it while we can!

See you tomorrow x