Gift Box - and a fabulous cow!

Here's my offering over on Holidays with the Cricut today - gift wrap tuesday. Loads of 'how to' photos over on the blog, and another chance to leave your name over there to be in with a chance to win this week's prize of not one but two cartridges for a couple of lucky peeps.

When I was last in the Lake District with my friend Anne, I fell in love with some cow paintings, so was delighted on Christmas day to open my present to find what I thought was a cow print. It wasn't until Saturday that I discovered that it wasn't a print at all, she drew it herself for me, making this gorgeous copy of the painting I had fallen in love with. Don't you think it's brilliant? I call her Buttercup (the cow, not Anne), which is such a delightfully unoriginal name for a cow that it seems totally apt, and I will treasure her forever

Tomorrow is wild card wednesday, so tune in to see what I have been up to

Quick Card Monday for Holidays with the Cricut

So today sees the first day of my stint as the February guest designer on Holidays with the Cricut (I can't bring myself to call myself Miss February!!).

Today, I was asked to make a video showing a quick and easy card, I used the elephant from the Paisley cartridge. I chose three cartridges to showcase this week - Paisley, Sweethearts and Pagoda. My holiday to showcase is valentines, but I have tried to make cards that would be suitable for other 'lovey' occasions too, like anniversaries or weddings.

if you go over to the site and leave a comment you are in the draw to win a Cricut cartridge, go on, the odds must be better than playing the lottery!

A Sneaker Card..............

It's ages since I used this shoe cut from My Community, that was the reason I bought the cartridge in the first place. I cut the shoe at 4 1/2", the base card is 6 x 6 square. The colours are a bit 'off in the photo, I took it late at night.

I cuttlebugged the sole of the shoe, the sentiment circle is a button by Craftwork Cards, I think it makes the shoe look just like a Converse trainer - the sort I always buy for Kiki when I am in the USA (half the price over there)

The stitching is faux - I took this close up to show what I am talking about, I just ran the card through with the sewing machine unthreaded, then joined the dots
Cricut machine and My Community Cartridge
Papers DCWV
Flowers Prima
Sentiment button Craftwork Cards
Border punch Martha Stewart


I am getting ready for my week on Holidays with the Cricut, which starts tomorrow. I am a bit nervous, so be sure to come on over and see what I have been up to, this is my plea for a bit of bloggyland solidarity. If you don't know the site, they give away a cricut cartridge EVERY week, and you get heaps of inspiration there as well. The gals who own the site, Joy, Melanie and Tammy are a real hoot, as well as being uber talented. I will be posting on here as usual this week, but there will be more detail on the Holidays site. Come and watch, there's a couple of wobbly videos for you to laugh at as well.


Anyone else sick of Valentines? I seem to have been making 'lurve' cards for months now for various magazines (in fact, I was making Valentines in October). I am awash with red hearts, can't wait for the Easter bunnies to start hopping around (although I made some Easter cards in December as well). This is the week when I wish I was a florist, so that I could quadruple the price of red roses and get away with it (before indignant florists jump on me, I know it's the suppliers not you).

See you tomorrow I hope. Stay warm, especially if you are in the north east of the USA

Floral Birthday Wishes for Cute Card Thursday

The challenge this week over on Cute Card Thursday is Spots and Dots. I like the way this one turned out. I took a square 6" base card, and cut a strip from the right side of the front, then scalloped that. The flowers are all cut from a single sheet of cardstock and stuck on with foam pads, then decorated with metal dots, shimmerz dots and a button, plus a bit of doodling

I lined the inside of the card with a coordinating paper, and managed to cut it so that the ring of brown dots was in exactly the right place to take a sentiment button
Paper, card base and sentiment button from Craftwork Cards
Shimmerz dots - Papermania
Metal Dots - Jo-Ann basics
Border punch - Scallop holes Martha Stewart

Polkadoodle Friday

The challenge this week is paper piecing, so I printed the girl image out in black and white, then again onto the lovely pastel check paper - she was just made to wear checked dungarees wasn't she? The stitching is faux, I am finding with my cute but difficult to thread machine that this is my best option, so I randomly stitched some wobbly lines then joined the dots with a black pen.

Papers and image are from the Back to Nature CD by Polkadoodles


Be sure to check out the blog lots of inspiration over there, and have a go at the challenge, as always there is a prize for the top polkadoodler of the week
I am entering this in the Colour Create challenge as well, which is soft pink, soft blue, white and silver. I put some silvery glitter in some of the polkadots, but they don't show up in the picture.

Tune in to Create and Craft TV at 11am tomorrow, our lovely Funky Hand boss Anice is doing a live show with her latest CD -Dreams Come True - if you haven't seen a demo of this, be sure to watch, it really is the best Funky Hand CD ever, the papers are just fabulous, and lots of interactive images and stuff on there as well

Two little owls.................

These owls, by Craftwork Cards come printed on a sheet of pearlescent card all ready to colour and cut out. Dead easy. The branch is a cricut cut, but I can't for the life of me remember which cartridge it's from. I punched the flowers and added a gem to the centre. The sentiment, which doesn't show up, says 'Just Because'

The papers are lovely, all pearlescent and shiny

All supplies from Craftwork Cards

Here's a sneek peek at a detail from my card for the Polkadoodles challenge tomorrow, be sure to come back and see me then

Sir Stampalot is moving................

Two cards today, just to prove that I really am still here, and still producing.....

The first one is for a contest draw. Sir Stampalot (one of the biggest UK online craft stores) is moving to a new store, and they are sponsoring a big draw with lots of prizes, go to Brenda's blog to read all about it. To be in with a chance to win, they are asking for moving projects, so I made this moving house card, the inside reads 'be happy in your new home'

The house image comes all ready printed and ready cut, from Craftwork Cards, I just coloured in one of the houses, cut it out and popped it over the base image

I love this linen cardstock they do, it is a beautiful weight and comes in lovely subtle colours

Cardstock and image (Des Res) by Craftwork Cards

home lettering - Papermania

Tiny alphas - Making memories

And here's another Craftwork cards image, in fact everything on this card is from them

I find black hair really difficult to colour, so I went over it all with C1 and C3 greys first, then sort of streaked the black on - she looks a bit grey, but at least the hair isn't flat black

Black sparkly card, geisha, sentiment button and flowers - Craftwork Cards
Border punch -Martha Stewart
Sparkle - glamour dust
Colouring - Eoo, E02, R32, black, C1 and C3
Black fine tip pen - Marvy

Whatever are the buyers for various shops thinking? I was bemused yesterday when trudging through Marks and Spencer, wearing boots, woolly tights, jeans, cashmere sweater, silk thermals, coat, scarf.................yes, I was well wrapped up, to see....................wait for it.................................the new line of swimsuits. Well, I don't know about you, but trying on a swimsuit is essential for me, as in my experience the photo of the beautiful teenager on the swing tag bears no resemblance to what the swimwear looks like on me, in fact it would be difficult to prove that it was the same product.
So it was not a huge temptation to resist unwrapping myself from all the layers to try one on, and I searched instead for some gloves (like the mysterious missing sock, my gloves have a habit of divorcing their partner, never to be seen again). No gloves anywhere. So I asked the perfectly reasonable question, "can you tell me where the gloves are please"
"GLOVES!" repeated the shocked assistant, in tones that implied I had asked for an item of an incredibly intimate nature, kept discreetly under the counter and wrapped up in plain brown paper. "We haven't had any gloves since before Christmas".
Silly me, what a daft question to ask when it was snowing outside. Must dash now, I just need to stock up on Easter eggs and suntan lotion before they sell out

Teacher Card for Daring Cardmakers

This week's dare on Daring cardmakers is 'School' - I was going to give it a miss, when I suddenly had a light bulb moment and decided to make a teacher card that Kiki can give to her teacher at the end of term.

I welded the apple from doodlecharms on my gypsy to form the base card - cut at 6", then cut the apple again in the red spots and plain green

I found some script paper and graph paper and thought they would look good. I had already coloured Tilda - I do that occasionally, have an evening of colouring in images in front of the TV with my feet up, then they are ready to go
Apple shaped card - Doodlecharms cartridge, gypsy, cricut machine
Red spotty paper - DCWV
Graph and script paper - WeR Memory Keepers
#1 lettering - Papermania
Teacher lettering - tiny alphas by Making Memories
Tilda stamp by Magnolia

I have had an incredibly busy weekend, putting the house back to rights after the decorator had finished, now everything is gleaming, and I am basking in a glow of self satisfaction at being such a perfect housewife - dust bunnies vanished until the next time the decorator comes :)

Two I forgot to share

I had to make some order out of my picture files last night, and found these cards that I forgot to share - just as well, as at the moment I am working flat out on stuff that I can't share with you yet.

The first one is a Polkadoodles card, I think the papers and flower are from the Back to Nature CD. I cut out the printed image, added some gems, and splattered some white glistening stuff with a paint brush onto the black background - haven't a clue what it's called, it was one of my mysterious pots...........

The second one was a BIG card I made for a neighbour in Florida, who was having a party to celebrate a BIG birthday. The stamp is Artistic Impressions, got to love them, and very appropriate for Florida. I cut the lettering out with Plantin Schoolbook cartridge. Papers are Martha Stewart
I don't know why the colour is so 'off' in this one, but wanted you to see the sentiment

As well as working non-stop on different craft projects, the house remains in turmoil. When the decorator moved our bed - which is very heavy, it has those storage drawers underneath, which are crammed full of stuff, - I was appalled at the huge amount of dust underneath. 'Don't worry' he said cheerfully 'I've seen a lot worse than this little bit of dust'. Well, I'm sure he has seen some very interesting stuff under peoples beds, but "A little bit of dust?". You could have stuffed a mattress with the stuff, or at least a couple of pillows. So there goes my claim for housewife of the week - not even close.

Fairy for cute card thursday

Over on Cute Card Thursday blog the challenge is FAIRIES, so I had to give my little Lily of the Valley fairy another outing

Papers - WeR Memory Keepers

Stamp - Lili of the valley

Raffia lace - Paper Cellar UK

Labels 1 dies - Spellbinders nesties

sentiment oval - Craftwork Cards

and oops, sorry, forgot to make a note of the copic numbers

I have been so busy this week, the decorator has finished the kitchen and moved into the master bedroom now - well, not literally, but you know what I mean............and of course, a shiny clean kitchen meant that all the cupboards and drawers needed a good spring clean as well, good heavens, I found tins and packets in there almost as old as my kids. What did I think I was going to do with polenta? Did a recipe once call for sour dried cherries? What possessed me to buy FIVE jars of papaya balls? Amazing how much more room you have when you chuck out all the rubbish. So if anybody has a blog award for housewife of the week, I will happily receive it

Girlie girlie card

The papers for this one are really pretty aren't they? I love bag and shoe cards for girlfriends. This one is another Papercraft Inspirations magazine card..............................

I like using this cuttlebug folder for shoes, really makes them look like snakeskin

Papers K & co

Shoes - Cricut Wedding solutions cartridge cut at 3"

Purse - Paisley Cricut cartridge cut at 4"

Tiny sentiment - clear Papermania sticker stuck onto pink card

Martha Stewart floral lace border punch

Inking - colourbox bronze cats eye

We have to strip the kitchen of furniture tomorrow - the decorator arrives on monday morning. I like the idea of having it all sparkling and fresh, hate the process you have to go through to get there. A decorator is a better option than us doing it ourselves, we have learnt that joint decorating in our case is a straight swift road to marital disharmony - so better not to go there! Mike is thorough, painstaking and slow, I am slapdash, messy and hasty. I end up covered in paint, Mike never has the tiniest spot on him (unless he gets too close to my paint brush). Funny how I can painstakingly spend hours on getting a single card just right, and yet have so little patience when it comes to walls doors and ceilings

Another teen card

Here's another Paisley cartridge card. The background papers are from the DCWV generation stack, and I punched a square with one of the new Martha Stewart punches, then chopped the square in half. I cut some tiny notes out of the background paper to put on the screen

How do you like my stitching? It's pretend - I couldn't be bothered to thread the machine, and just ran the empty needle in a herringbone stitch over the cardstock, then drew in the stitch lines. It looks okay - laziness sometimes pays dividends!

I added some rain drop bling to the earphones and a metal dot on the Ipod control.
Cricut cartridge - Paisley. Ipod cut at 4"
papers - Generation stack by DCWV
tiny letters - Making Memories
2U letters - Papermania

After my jokey comment about bugs and the doctor's surgery, it is now apparent that I DID pick up something, so I am achey, coughing and sneezing, I would be healthier if I had stayed at home. Talk about ironic.......................

Hello Card

This is another Funky Hand sample, Anice is showing the new Dreams come True CD on friday at 2.00 PM on Ideal World TV here in the UK

I cut the front of the card in half, and covered front and inside of the card in this gorgeous green paper downloaded from the CD - it reminds me of a garden trellis

The flowers and watering can are digi stamps from the CD, it's so easy to enlarge them to the size you want, just click and it's done. I printed it out onto cardstock that was printed with one of the coordinating patterns from the collection

these little shimmerz dots are really useful as water droplets, and they add a bit of sparkle


More 'watery' drops around the flowers. I do love these colours, they are fresh and springlike, which is just what you need on a cold winter's day Talking about Funky Hand, don't forget this months challenge over on Get Funky - there is a prize really worth winning for the winner of the challenge, the subject is 'spots and stripes', so a fun challenge to do, and you have until the end of the month to get your entry in

Papers and images - Dreams Come True by Funky Hand

shimmerz dots - Papermania from docrafts

hello lettering by Papermania




I have a shhhhh secret to share, I have been asked to be guest designer over on the Christmas with the Cricut blog (recently renamed Calendar Girls). So I am in charge for a whole week in February - which gives me the title of Miss February, which I think is rather hilarious. I made sure it didn't mean I had to strip and sit behind my Cricut in the noddy, with a couple of prima flowers to hide my assets, before I said yes. (If you've seen the film, you will know what I am talking about, if not............put it down to my usual gibberish)

So I am busy working on a whole weeks worth of (I hope) rather special projects, so look out for that.

Wishing you wool - Lily-Boo

First of all, thanks to everyone who commented for the Cutting Cafe blog hop, I used random.org to pick the winner, and the number that came up was

12

that's Nannieflash - Shirley

congrats Shirley, email me and I will email the file to you. Have fun!

On to today's card, over on the Lily-boo boutique, Sam has come up with the cutest new downloads, I fell in love with this little cat and printed him out onto white card, then onto the gingham paper.....................

.................and cut out the wool out of the gingham image. The letter stickers are from a huge box by K & Co that I got on clearance somewhere, the only trouble being that it takes ages and ages to sift through and find the letters you want
Copic markers (cat)
YR23, YR13, R02, shadow prismacolour cool grey 10%
Gingham paper - making memories
brown stripe - paper place
letter stickers K & Co
pinking shears scallops - nestabilities
inking - colourbox bronze inkpad

My friend Joan from Florida is in hospital, she follows this blog faithfully, I know she will be checking in when she can, so sending this card, virtually, just for you Joan, with big get well hugs xx

I was at my doctor's surgery today, aren't they depressing places? Even if you don't feel ill when you go in there, after ten minutes of sitting next to someone who is coughing, spluttering and letting out the odd little moan of pain, you start to feel feverish and a little strange..............oh no, he's given his nasty bugs to me. No amount of logical thinking (that you cannot possibly have symptoms after such a short time) will dispel the feeling of doom. I swear, in 30 minutes, I caught whooping cough, swine flu and possibly smallpox (or maybe the unfortunate youth just had a bad case of acne). I think we should have a national campaign to make surgeries a bit more jolly. Maybe a karaoke machine in the corner, we could all sing 'I did it my way' lustily while we waited. My surgery has a system where the next patients name flashes up in lights on a board when it's their turn, perhaps in between patients, they could flash up bingo numbers, give us all cards when we go in. Excuse me now, must just go and check myself for fever/rash/hypachondria

Another doily card...

Here's another wildcard 'doily' card, this time, I threaded grosgrain ribbon through the holes. The papers are all from Funky Hand's new CD Dreams Come True, and the little branch is one of the icons on the wildcard cartridge

The sentiment oval is by Craftwork Cards, I swiped it with a green inkpad, and I dotted the branch with pearls and green gems. the card was cut at 5 1/2"
I had a good old sort out of all my papers yesterday, now I have them in boxes according to colour, and I have kept the stacks together in another box. I felt quite virtuous when I was done, and I have a huge pile of cardstock/papers to give to my niece as well. How long it will remain organised is anybody's guess, I am a VERY messy worker.

How did I acquire all this stuff? I swear it's reproducing itself in my crafty cupboard. I found tubs and jars of mysterious stuff - powders, pastes, gunky stuff, that I have no idea how to use. I obviously saw some technique using them, somewhere, sometime, had to have them, used them once, didn't like the effect, so back it all goes into the cupboard with the other unused/unloved/unwanted/mysterious stuff. Now, the original purpose of the stuff is lost in the mists of time, and it will sit there until the next time I see a fabulous card made with it. What happens then, is that I forget I have some, go out and buy a new, expensive pot of gunky stuff, and the whole sad cycle starts all over again................

Mental note to self: do not buy any more paper, there is no more room in the boxes

Cheeky Valentine Sneaky Peek

Here's a peek at one of the cards from the quick cards section of Papercraft Inspirations magazine, on sale in the UK on monday.

My brief was to make a simple 'cheeky' Valentine card, here's what I came up with.

I love these sissix doll face rub ons, they have such great expressions.

I gave one of the girlie feet a ribbon bow, she looks very shocked, can't imagine what he's up to.........................

I really need to sort my stuff out, I could do with a secretary/sorter extraordinaire to get me organised. I am sure that even with my limited space I could organise my papers into some system that doesn't involve rummaging around for hours in various boxes to find stuff that matches. Maybe I will try and do it by colour. I do have my plain cardstock in drawers according to colour, that works pretty well, it's the 12 x 12 pattern paper I have a problem with. Then there's the two sided paper - hmmm, now do I file it under blue, or red for the reverse side. Or maybe all my double sided papers can go together. HELP. Anyone got any great ideas?

Dreams DO Come True................

So today sees the launch of Funky Hand's new CD - Dreams Come True, on Create and Craft TV in the UK at noon. Good luck Anice xx

This card was cut with the doily feature from wildcard, at 5 1/2", which fits in nicely with this week's dare over on

Daring Cardmakers, where one of my Funky Hand teamies has set the dare for this week

HOLES!

Well, there's holes all round this one Lythan, I hope it fits the bill.

I printed the pattern onto 140gsm cardstock, then cut out the base card.

I love duckegg and brown, don't you?
For this next one, I printed out the spotty paper for a background, and covered the front of a scallop card base.
The teapot and cups are images off the CD, and the fabulous thing is that with the click of a mouse you can enlarge any of them, quickly and easily, with no fiddling around with photoshop or anything, and believe me, if I find it easy, that means it's truly a doddle...................
I decided against colouring in the images, I rather liked the graphic looking black and white. I could, of course, have printed it out onto one of the pattern papers, and it would have totally coordinated. I added some clear shimmerz to drip from the teapot spout. The large letter T is by papermania, and the rest of the sentiment (cheesy isn't it?) was done on the computer.
The printed elements were stuck on with foam pads, to give dimension, and I finished with a silver brad on the teapot lid




So watch out for more Dreams Come True cards over the next few days

It has started to thaw! YESSSSSSSSSSSS! Now it is all slushy and drippy, but so welcome.

Have a lovely weekend

If it's friday, it must be Polkadoodles........

This week the team were asked to use the new Love and Cherish CD, which is packed full of the most stunning papers and images. Of course, I couldn't resist these owls, I printed them out twice and decoupaged some of them. I scrunched the velvet ribbon a bit to give it some texture, and really quite like the end result

Pop on over to Polkadoodles blog to see what the rest of the team came up with, there are some rather stunning offerings over there this week, and why not join in the fun, as usual there are goodies to be won

Quite what I am going to do with all these valentine cards that I am having to make for design teams I do not know. Mike would probably faint if I presented them to him.................any ideas folks?

I heard a little tale about my nephew's little boy that I must share with you, it really made me laugh. Dylan is a very bright little 2 1/2 year old little boy. His mum organised a hairdresser to cut the childrens hair in their own home. This did not go down well with Dylan, who roared and protested very loudly. 'Nearly finished now Dylan' said the hairdresser soothingly 'I just have to cut around your ears'
"NO! NOT MY EARS" yelled the frightened little boy " I NEED THEM FOR LISTENING"

Lovebirds for the Cutting Cafe - win the file

Regina Easter of The Cutting Cafe has come up with the cutest valentine stuff this year. These little lovebirds are one of my favourite downloads

The paper is DCWV Be Mine stack, I fussy cut around some of the leaves to overlap the image

Would you like to win this download? Regina has kindly said that I can give it away to some lucky person. Leave a comment on this post, I will draw a winner on Wednesday the 20th January and the download will be emailed right to you. I think this would make a great anniversary card as well.

Copic markers used - tree E37,E39

Birds - B 02

Leaves - RV32, RV23

Here's today's sneaky peek at another Funky Hand sample, all will be revealed on saturday........

Running the risk of being boring here, but the snow keeps coming - quite remarkable really, I think Mother Nature took a wrong turn somewhere and thinks she is in Iceland. Hello lady, this is the United Kingdom, we are supposed to have rain not all this white stuff. In the meantime, I am still in dormouse hibernating mode, finding it difficult to get motivated to do anything but curl up by the fire with a bar of chocolate and a good book
Keep Warm!

Paisley Teenager Card - and a Sneaky Peek

Here's a sneaky peek at one of the cards I made from the new Funky Hand CD, Dreams Come True, which is on preorder now on the website, and will be premiered on Create and Craft TV on Saturday 16th January at 12.00, and again on Ideal World TV on Friday 22nd January at 2 p.m

The design team have been beavering away to get the samples done, and boy, you are in for a treat, the CD is full of wonderful papers, word books and extras. Don't forget, if you live outside the UK, shipping is free to anywhere in the world

I will be showing a sneaky peek every day, and will show the whole cards on Saturday morning

At last I found time to play with my new Paisley cartridge, this one is full of girlie images, just what I wanted, but in fact this card would do for a teen boy as well. The colours were determined by the background paper, which I couldn't resist when I saw it - DCWV Generation

The phone was cut at 3 1/2", and the letters were cut with george, at 2". I used red mirri card, very unlike me, but some of the words on the background are red foil, so it seemed to go. I used some black metal shiny dots (Jo-annes) as an accent

Sad person that I am, I had to google to see how teenagers would wish each other happy birthday in a text!!!

I used this particular cuttlebug embossing folder because I think it has quite a strong tech-design sort of feel, it looks like those metal floors you get in trendy loft conversions

You must hop over to one of my Polkadoodles teamies, Brenda's blog, she is organising this blog hop, it sounds like a lot of fun




I promised a photo of my copic storage, here it is.........................works perfectly, and spins round with the flick of a finger




That's it for today, back to the drawing board now, I am working on some magazine stuff, I have done my thinking and planning and am now ready to start seeing if the ideas work out on paper
See you tomorrow x