Expectant Mum Card

A 'Congrats you're expecting' card . The stamp was a dollar bin find. I stamped it twice, once onto pattern paper and pieced it. The sentiment is a clear studio G. This is for a certain young lady who checks my blog regularly, she will know at once that the card is for her...........CONGRATS

Male Birthday

Here's a male birthday card for a friend who likes his vino. I am pleased with the way the embossing folder has given this card a rustic woody sort of feel. Click on the main picture to get a better view, some of the details don't show up too well. I covered the bottles and glass in Diamond Glaze.

I had the unusual experience today of going to buy Papercraft Inspirations (must get my subscription sorted out :) ) and seeing my cards on the cover of the magazine. I was so proud, I stopped for a coffee and read it all cover to cover, waiting for someone I knew to walk past so that I could show them......................nobody did. I had just been to get my hair done as well. Yesterday, when I looked like a witch I bumped into a chap I had been at school with. He told his wife laughingly that he had a huge crush on me when we were fourteen. She sniggered and looked totally disbelieving. Yes, well you should have met me today girlie, with new hair, full make up AND stuff in a magazine.

A sneek peek.....................

Here is a sneek peek at one of the cards being published in Papercraft Inspirations due out on 1st September in the UK, a month later in the USA and Canada - it sells in Barnes and Noble, Books a Million and some Joannes. I have made 10 cards, all with a theme of lace. I have since been told that tall thin cards are difficult to photograph, so I am learning as I go along.....The article is all about different ways of using lace - felt fusion, paper lace, real lace etc etc. I can't wait to see them in the magazine. If you get a copy, let me know what you think.

There is a coupon code under the Cropstop logo on the right that they have given me for my readers - I am guest designer for October, everything on the site is in stock and they have the yummiest collection of dew drops I have ever seen. You get 10% off orders over $20.

Just Dropping You A Line - Cricut Card

I have started playing around with the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge. They have these great frames on it, so I cut the one with waves to make this card. The fish is from animal kingdom and the sentiments are dollar stamps by Inkadinkadoo. Added a bit of cuttlebug and some dew drops, then just tipped the waves with pearl accents. This is one I like (I am SO critical of my work), as I feel the icy blue makes it look quite watery.

We fly back to the UK from Spain tomorrow, the holiday has been great, we seem to have spent a lot of time weeping with laughter. A keen sense of the ridiculous is needed when you are trying to communicate in a language that you only know 10 words max! So a lot of hand waving, ludicrous face pulling and shouting has been going on - and that´s only the waiters! I won´t even try to tell you about the policeman who pulled us over for ????? (crime unknown as his explanation did not use the words caffe con leche, por favor or muchas gracias)

Stylish Happy Birthday Card

I think that the stylish lady stamp from the Haute Couture set by Stampin Up must rate as my favourite of all time, it has such bold lines. I decided to use it on a simple gatefold card for a friend, using my nestabilities for the scallop circles, and some prima flowers to add a bit of a punch.

Cards Made With Free Papers

I think I have mentioned before how, in the UK, all the monthly crafting magazines come with a free gift taped to the front, often papers. I must admit, that my freebies usually go straight in the wastebin, they are never quite my style. Paper is my weakness and I can't resist buying loads whenever I am in a craft store. So, it was another rainy summers day here in the UK, and I challenged myself to do something with these papers, that were free with this month's PapercraftEssentials. These two cards are the result. What do you think? I feel that I must stop being wasteful and start using them in the future.

Spain is just as I hoped, sunny and relaxing. We are avoiding the beaches, you have never seen so many human bodies crammed so close together. We have a hire car that has an electronic dashboard which gives instructions in Spanish. Now we are typical British tourists who enter a country without even a rudimentary knowledge of a language, and expect everyone to understand us. Anyway, the lack of a phrase book is a problem, we were stuck for an hour last night trying to work out what the dashboard was telling us, before we could start the car. What was it saying? Something like ´take the handbrake off you arrogant Brits!!´

I had a great email the other day, from Cropstop asking me to be a guest designer for the month of October. It´s a great site, everything they show is in stock, and they ship really quickly, so I am very, very happy to be a part of the team. They have a new forum starting up in September too, that will be a fun place to go and hang out with like-minded friends.

JOY - It's Christmas in August.

Regina asked the Bitten By The Bug design team to use this Christmas stocking off the Christmas Cheer cartridge for this weeks cut - BUT we had to use non-traditional colours. This lime green and hot pink from the Funky Hand Christmas download fitted the bill perfectly, so I just printed some out and started playing. I used gold mirror card to mat the green and pink rectangles, so it is quite a shiny happy little card. The letters come on an alphabet sheet that you print out.

Missing You - Great Impressions Stamp

This little girl in her kimono is so sweet. I stamped her onto white, then two pattern papers and cut her fan and kimono out before layering them on the base image with silicone glue to give them a bit of a lift. The stamp is by Great Impressions, and the papers by DCWV. Sentiment stamp is by Daisy Bucket.

This card is for Mike, who is keeping my blog going while I am in Spain, he has never done it before so you may see all sorts of old family photos popping up over the next few days! I am going to Calpe, which is close to Alicante, to stay in a friends villa with three girlfriends. We plan to veg out by the pool, read a lot and laugh a lot. It will be fun and I get to see sun at last!

Hope Your Day Shines

I love the sunshiny colours on this card - as I write this looking at rain pouring down outside, it cheers me.

I cut the sun from doodlecharms in orange spotty paper. then on blackout in pale yellow. I wrapped orange organdy ribbon around the whole thing and finished off with a bow and some prima flowers.

I am flying to Spain in the morning -
have you ever travelled light on holiday? We are flying with a charter company, so don't have much baggage allowance, I could use it all up just on shoes. So I am being very organised, which means piling clothes on the spare bed in neat little stacks, which keep growing...and growing.... as they grow I mutter to myself 'I can do without this' and take one strappy little top which weighs about 1oz off the pile and replace with a pair of bronze leather sandals that weigh 2lbs.
I am always fascinated by those articles in magazines where they kit you up for a three week stay in a 5* hotel with just a swimsuit and a sarong, which you deftly twist into an evening dress, a skirt, a top (and probably a dressing gown), you then slip a witty giant flower into your hair and are supposed to look fabulous for the whole three weeks. Funny, it doesn't work like that for me, the sarong would come untwisted in the middle of the dance floor revealing vast areas of sunburn, and the flower would fall wittily out of my hair after five minutes.

Moo-chas Grass-ias - Paper Dolls

This silly little cow from the paper dolls cartridge was perfect for the thank you card I wanted to make. I cut her in a black and white card, then again in white and cut off her face and horns, then added them to the pattern layer. She looked a bit like a zebra so I did some random black markings. I applied diamond glaze to her horns and feet and stuck two shiny black dots on for a nose.

Making her reminded me of the day when we opened the local paper in Florida and saw the following ad. in the 'lost and found' column.


LOST - BLACK AND WHITE CAT, LOOKS LIKE A COW.

Hmmm..........bet they found her pretty quick then. You know what the owners meant, but it looks so ridiculous in print.

Shaped Card Without Design Studio

I bought the Design Studio specifically to make cute 'shaped' cards, and have never used it. Mainly because, irritatingly, it can only be registered to one computer, and mine is in the USA. I will play with it when I get back. In the meantime, I worked out a way of making cards that do not have to be attached with a brad or ribbon, which never works very well for me. It would work well with all simple shapes, and really does not take long to do. I'm off to do a shoe next!

Cut out your chosen shape on your Cricut. I recommend using cardstock rather than paper as it serves as your template, and also makes the front of your finished card.

Draw around the shape carefully
Flip the shape over - do NOT overlap the sides, just place the flipped piece exactly on the line of the first shape as shown. Draw round the shape as before
Cut out your outlines leaving the join uncut Attach your original pattern cut to the front of your card

My first card for 2 Sketches 4 You

Two of my team mates from the Bitten By The Bug design team have started their own challenge blog, and it has taken the blogging world by storm. Take a look at 2 Sketches to see what all the fuss is about. Laura and Kazan are super talented.
This is the first chance I have had to join in with their weekly challenges, and this is my interpretation of this week's sketch. I used a cream card base then added layers of yummy papers by Creative Expressions, and cut one of the scrolly flowers out as a focal point. Some doodling and sewing, pearl gems and it ended up looking like this.

Birthday Boy - Train Card

The challenge on the Bitten By The Bug site this week was to use this little train from the New Arrival cartridge. I cut it at 4", the gifts are from various cartridges and the sentiment is from two Studio G stamps. I added the giant buttons for wheels to give it a bit of oomph! I did have fun using all these really bright primary colours together to catch a childs eye. I left the little star blank so that I can write the name of the child on it before I mail it.

Click HERE to go to the site and see how the designers all had different ideas for this cut.

Get Well Card

The 'dare' on DCM this week is to use sprinkles on your card. I suppose this sprinkling of tiny gems will fit the bill. The ice blue background is embossed with the d'vine swirls folder (what a pity the pretty embossing never shows up well on photos, but if you click on the photo to enlarge it, you will get a better idea), the stamps are by Great Impressions. The store where I used to buy these stamps has closed down, I will have to find another source. I love them, take a look on their website, they have a gallery with all sorts of cardmaking ideas.

Stretch Your Imagination Flower

I am still playing around with this cartridge, I have had it for some time and never used it much - until now, I am finding all sorts of stuff I like on it. The flower and pot were cut at 2 1/2" and there is quite a lot of cuttlebug embossing going on there in the background.

After a few days of glorious sunshine, the weather forecast is for heavy rain and flash floods - oh goody, now it will feel like summer in the UK once more.

Blog Award

I got this Wylde Women blog award from Dawny - thanks Dawny. I am passing it on to some blogging friends, Julie, Lana, Jozza and Allison

I also got tagged by QueenDavia and I am supposed to write all sorts of facts about myself that are going to bore you rigid, so stop reading NOW

10 Years ago I was ----- working full time, had never heard of rubber stamping, cardmaking or scrapbooking, longing to give up work but wondering what I would do with myself when I did - well, we all know the answer to that!

5 things on todays to do list ------ make a card, make a card, make a card, make a card, make a card

Snacks I enjoy ------ as if anybody would be interested in my gastronomic delights, so I'll pass on this one, but will give a honorable mention to Dunkin Donuts iced caramel latte. Make mine a large one please.

Things I would do if I was a millionaire ------- Invest wisely and make a billion

Places I have lived -------Wales, Yorkshire, West Midlands and Hudson, Florida

Hey, are you still here? Still awake?

Wedding/Anniversary Card

So for some reason I fancied making quite an elaborate glitzy sort of card and made this one, which could be used as a wedding or anniversary card. Don't ask me what dragonflies have to do with love and marriage, I don't know, just liked the cut!

I made a base card in white, 5" square and ran it through the cuttlebug using the textile folder. The gold frame was cut from mirri card, also at 5" using the stretch your imagination cartridge, and then I trimmed a sliver from each side of the inside square of gold, before adhering it to the centre of the card. The dragonfly (from doodlecharms) was cut twice from pearl vellum, and the body in white card. Ran the vellum through the cuttlebug, divine swirls folder and swiped an embossing pad over it, then brushed it with gold perfect pearls. I stamped the body with a swirly stamp and again applied perfect pearls. Finally the hearts were cut in white, then gold from the wedding cartridge.

Bicycle Birthday - Stretch Your Imagination

This was going to be a quick little card, but ended up taking me ages. The bicycle is cut from the stretch your imagination cartridge, cut at 4 1/2", I added some stitching and lots of doodling, then added two prima flowers behind the diecut one. All the papers are from DCWV all dressed up stack. This is another card that looks better in real life, the black gets lost in the photo. I really must try and improve my photography skills

Penny Black Lambs - Just for Ewe

The challenge on the Penny Black challenge site this week is the farmyard, I have some cute cow stamps by them, but went for these little sheep. I do like the aqua and red colours, which were dictated by the little panel of pattern paper. The words were computer generated, and the red background was embossed with the swiss dots folder.
At last the weather is glorious here, it's so nice to feel warm and to have a coffee in the open air watching the world go by. Mind you, they forecast rain tomorrow!

Love Book for This Thursday

This week I was asked to be the guest designer on This Thursday a new challenge blog. They sent me all sorts of goodies from their sponsor the stamp man - gorgeous moonglow washes, gold leaf, fusible fibres. This is what I came up with. The LOVE book is by SEI and was sent to me by my message board friend Sheri. I painted it with the washes, which are a gorgeous coppery glow in real life, stamped around with some heart stamps by Technique Tuesday, cut some hearts with the cricut - george cartridge, and ran them through the cuttlebug script folder then rubbed them with gold leaf. Added some fusible fibres embossed with copper (they were fun to use, you just tear pieces off, place them where you want and heat with a heat gun, it goes all lacy, and then you sprinkle with embossing powder, it's a neat effect) and finally embossed a square of chipboard with ultra thick embossing powder and copper, then pressed one of the heart stamps into it to make the embellishment. A few ribbons and I was set to go. The products were fabulous to use and although this is a departure from my usual stuff, I so enjoyed using them and am really pleased with the result. Thank you Tracey for inviting me to guest design for you.