Craftwork Cards Design Team Call, and it's fun being a tourist.....

Here's an exciting opportunity for those of you looking for a design team place, Craftwork Cards are looking for four new team members, as one of the existing team I can tell you that it is a lovely, friendly team to be on, headed up by the super talented Julie Hickey, and I don't need to tell you how lovely the products are that you will be playing with...... if you have any questions, and to see the full requirements, go HERE.  Here's what they say.....

We have 4 Design Team places up for grabs!We are looking for talented paper crafters to join our existing Craftwork Cards Design Team.

Being a part of the Craftwork Cards Team means that:
* Every month you will receive our latest collection in the form of our exclusive Project of the Month kit.* Your work could be featured on our blog, facebook page, on the website, in our inspiration galleries, appear on QVC and could even be published in one of the national craft magazines.

* You will receive Craftwork Cards gorgeous products, before everyone else and will be part of our very talented and friendly team

No card from me today, I have been too busy playing hostess, but I thought those of you outside the UK would like to see where we went yesterday - this is the home of the Ferrers family, built in the late 1500's. A lovely moated manor house, called Baddesley Clinton, not far from where we live....... 

  The Spring flowers were lovely, I loved this ancient horse trough filled with primulas.......

and this is a flowering quince in full bloom...... 

the house was a sanctuary for Catholic priests in the days when Catholics were persecuted - there are several hidey holes where the priests were hidden when the house was searched......

I could use these colours on a card, isn't that a gorgeous shade of pink/lilac? 

 We went for a walk by the lake, the field was sprinkled with wild primroses

I'll be back tomorrow with some crafty stuff to show you hopefully, I need to get back to my desk....I have those lovely Sweet Pea Craftwork Cards papers to play with

Shades of Brown.....

Here's another of the Saturated Canary images I bought - isn't she lovely? Coloured with Promarkers, I decided on shades of taupe and brown.......

I just folded a piece of ribbon in half and attached with a button tied with string for an embellishment.....

Promarkers used
Hair vanilla, saffron, tan, umber, burnt umber
Dress Tan, caramel, ivory, blender
Skin blush and soft peach


Busy busy doing hostessy stuff with our visitors, will be back tomorrow.....

Funny?

Here's one of my cards from this months issue of Papercraft Inspirations magazine - my brief was to make funny birthday cards for a female, for the Quick Cards section of the magazine. The cards in this section of the magazine have to be designs that the readers can reproduce in about thirty minutes, so another challenge - this was quite a challenge altogether actually, most humorous birthday cards have a punchline on the inside of the card, and obviously this wouldn't do for a magazine publication, but I managed to come up with some - here's my favourite!

I have spent a weekend cleaning and cooking - we have friends coming to stay today, so glitter has been abandoned, stray bits of paper swept up, sticky pads removed from the floor........


I have also found another passion. Does anyone play Draw Something on their phone or iPad? Every ten minutes or so, I dash off to scribble another drawing, it's addictive. If anyone wants to join me, my user name is Enfysc - you will be astonished, amazed and amused at how bad I am at drawing stuff!

Polkadoodles Easter Blog hop

We are having a blog hop at Polkadoodles today, the Easter Bunny has been to some of the blogs with candy to giveaway - you will just have to hop around to find them. In addition, there is a gorgeous prize up for grabs for those who enter this weeks challenge. You need to pick up a letter at each blog, which will spell out a word, go on, it will be fun!

If you came here from Doreens blog, you are in the right place - here is my card. The card base was cut with the Cricut and Wildcard cartridge, the bunny is from Paper Boutique, and I added a spotty paper bow and some punched flowers.......

Oh look, the Easter Bunny has been here, and left me a copy of the brand new Sugarplum Daisy CD to giveaway - just leave a comment under this post before you hop on to Miria's blog


The letter you pick up here is

R

Off you hop, and good luck

More Art Deco

Here's another card made with the same stamp set as yesterday's card, by Debbi Moore. This time I made an easel card, and used plenty of bling and black. The leaf spray is by Sissix, colouring done with Promarkers

What a lot of you empathized with my monster lady coffee encounter. We all seem to encounter rudeness a lot, just in our everyday lives. Isn't that sad? What a reflection of the times we live in.....


Another glorious day here in the UK, but as I spent four hours yesterday, changing over my wardrobe to more summery stuff, packing away the boots and sweaters, it is bound to change to cold wintry weather again. Happens every year. I should be used as a national severe weather warning.


Call in tomorrow for a Easter Polkadoodle blog hop, the Easter bunny has been visiting some of our blogs, so goodies to pick up along the way as well as a lot of inspiration 

Roaring Twenties....

I found this stamp in a drawer when I was trying to find room for new stuff, it's by Debbi Moore, and I bought it at a craft show last year, then forgot about it - isn't that terrible? So I inked it up, it took ages to colour, I didn't think she looked like the type of lady who would wear anything but very muted colours........

I used a border punch to do both front and back of the card on each side, they match up exactly and look really pretty. I started with the notch on the border punch exactly on the fold of the card, then punched across to the left as usual, then went back to the first punch and went to the right. Because you are starting in exactly the same spot on both sides, the borders match up perfectly. I must try this with a deep border punch....

I have a coffee tale today, not funny, just a rant. I was walking with my coffee in my hand towards the only free table in the sunshine, when I was almost knocked off my feet and rugby tackled by a woman who threw her handbag over my shoulder onto the table to claim it! I was quite shocked by her rudeness, and went to sit inside. Some people at the table next to this monster woman had seen what happened, and were nice enough to come inside the coffee shop to find me to tell me that they were leaving, would I like their table. So, faith in human nature restored, I sat at my nice table with two chairs, next to monster woman who was sitting there with no coffee and on a single chair. Out came the man she was with, with their coffee, and without even asking, he started to take the spare chair at my table. Oh no, I wasn't having that, 'I'm sorry, that seat is taken, I'm waiting for a friend' I lied. So he had to drink his coffee standing up, glaring balefully at me when my mythical friend failed to appear. Tough! Whatever happened to good manners?


Rant over. See you tomorrow 

Under the weather?

Have you seen all the lovely Saturated Canary digis around in blogland? There are some gorgeous images, so I bought a few last week, and had to have this very sassy girl enjoying the rain with her umbrella rolled up. I printed her out twice, once onto pattern paper, and paper pieced the umbrella. I added some clear acrylic splashes to the raindrops. The sentiment is by MFT, and the base card and candi is from Craftwork Cards 

Coloured with Promarkers:
Skin blush and soft peach
Skirt and hood blossom, pink carnation, pastel pink
jacket soft lime, lime and primrose
scarf saffron and vanilla
hair cocoa, cinnamon, tan and ivory

I have a springtime cold, so feeling under the weather myself. Why is it as soon as the sun comes out, I start sniffling, after making it all through the winter without so much as a sniff........


If you have a spare five minutes for a browse, can I encourage you to pop over HERE see all the challenge entries for this months recycled challenge? Click on the photos and you will be taken to the blogs. You will be blown away, such an imaginative use of stuff, you won't believe it. The challenge is open until the 9th April, and so far, only eleven entries this month, perhaps I made it too difficult, but do cut up that old dishcloth, rescue that bubble wrap, look out the garden string and use them onto a card to join in the fun, and be in with a chance of winning a Promarker special edition stamp set.

NEC Swag.....

Well I promised I would show you my haul from the NEC, but look what was waiting for me when I got home, the latest collection called Sweet Pea from Craftwork Cards, and although I say this every month, I REALLY think that this one is my favourite ever....look at the gorgeous whitewashed papers

with matching card candi and sentiments......

 and these embossed squares can be sanded for even more texture. Can't wait to get started!

There was a stand at the NEC selling stuff made out of MDF (medium density fiberboard, so a lot more substantial than chipboard) the prices were amazingly low, so a lot of stuff found it's way home with me. Can you see the wall signs in the background? The square box is a money box, and of course there were some great mini albums just waiting to be altered - some of it may well be used with the Sweet Pea paper collection

 Now where to put it? I may need to clear the decks a little.........

 I always stock up with red tacky tape at these craft shows - I get enough to last me a year. I find the really narrow one, not in this photo, is brilliant for sticking narrow ribbons onto projects

 I found these little pots with a really ultra fine nozzle, I filled one with PVA glue, and another with Glossy Accents, they are perfect for dispensing just a tiny drop of glue just where you want it

 You can't really see these very well, but they are masks - I have signed up for Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry online class, and although I don't do grungey stuff, I really like messing around with inks, so this will be a project for a 'playday'

While we are in the USA, it is the Queen's Diamond Jubilee weekend, well, I can't let that one go, so I am planning a Jubilee party in Florida, and found this  Union Jack embossing folder and some stamps, which will be perfect for quick party invitations 

and last, but definitely not least, I bought some more Memory Box dies - can you see the shutter? That will be a perfect fit for my window die. I got another branch and some fuschia flowers....more playtime stuff!












I have been super busy this weekend, and super productive as well, magazine commission tick, text for magazine tick, sample cards tick, challenge card for Polkadoodles tick................notice that I can't share a single one of these with you today, but I'll be back with some stuff tomorrow


The weather has been glorious here this weekend, a rather nice warm, but not hot, sunny day, and being the UK, a lot of the population went crazy and dug out their skimpiest summer clothes - there was a lot of pasty white flesh on show. It happens every year, I think we have such unpredictable weather that when we have a half decent day, the whole country goes a bit wild and soaks it all up in case we don't see the sun again for another year! (I do think that baggy shorts, trainers with socks and sleeveless vests are not the most attractive gear for a chap however old he is, someone should tell them....) 

Flowers for a Flower Club

 I was asked by my sister if I would do a cardmaking session at her flower club, it's only a small club, about fifteen ladies, only one was a cardmaker. So it was a bit of a challenge to come up with some designs for them to make that were easy, but that they would get satisfaction from the finished articles. I thought since it was a flower arranging club, that all the cards should be floral. Here's what I came up with:

A crumpled punched flower.......

A bit of colouring......

and some stamping.......this was the one that caused most problems. There was an old dear of ninety-odd there, she liked the stick on paper flowers, so sat happily sticking about twenty assorted blooms on her card - there were more flowers on it than the Chelsea Flower Show, I had to hide them in the end so that there were some left for the others!

They all seemed to enjoy it, and a few of them said they wanted to take up the hobby


I had a good time at the Craft Show - I took some photos of the goodies I found, but haven't had time to edit them yet. I came home with rather a lot of junk crafty stuff, heaven knows where I will find a home for it.


A couple of gems from my gem of a grandson, four-soon-to-be-five Max


Daddy, can we have a wishing well in the garden
No, they are in special places. Do you remember we saw one on holiday?
What are they for?
Well, you wish that someone who is poorly will be better, or that countries will stop fighting each other.....
Oh............I wished I could be a secret agent


(obviously philanthropic thoughts haven't entered the four year old mind yet...)


The next night, there was another conversation at bedtime
Daddy, at Christmas I heard Rudolph!
Wow! Children never hear Rudolph because Santa knows when you are asleep
Well, I was asleep, pretending to be awake


Work that one out! 

Fresh Green and White

Well, I am back from my dash down to London. It was fun to see the children of course. I picked up Kiki from school, how lovely to walk back hand in hand with her.......

She was insistent that I should have a photo of her as wallpaper on my phone. I am gadget-challenged, and she took over, here she is taking a photo of herself......

I managed to get it as wallpaper 'well done Ma' she said, patting my hand in a motherly way.....

and here she is 'modelling' the dress she will wear for her first communion in May. She wasn't allowed to put it on, too much of a risk......

meanwhile young Monty was gambolling around on the bed, using it as a trampoline.....

Back to reality, I had this gorjuss girl image ready coloured, so making the card was quick and easy, I love the fresh green and white....

Coloured with Flexmarkers, the ribbon is Martha Stewart twine, and the scallop die is by Nellie Snellen. The flower spray is done with the Martha leaf punch and some tiny punched flowers

I need to get back to my desk, but first of all I am spending tomorrow at a big craft fair here in Birmingham. It is a retail fair not trade, which means that I can buy, which means that I will spend, which means I will come home feeling guilty......I'll be back to show you what I managed to buy

Through the Window today......

Here's a card I made with the Memory Box window die, Primula die and Twig branch die, Martha Stewart fence, leaves and small butterfly. All the elements were cut from white card and coloured with Promarkers. 

 I added some very neutral paper behind the window, the sort that looked as if it could be wallpaper inside the house. I embossed the card with a woodgrain folder and inked it, I wanted it to look like weatherbeaten wood cladding. I sponged green ink onto the bottom, to provide a background to the flowers behind the picket fence

The fence is a halloween fence punch by Martha Stewart that I picked up for a ridiculous sum - about $2 when they were selling off all the halloween stuff. I knew that I could use it year round if I snipped off the little bats - in fact, I think the little bats would look like holly leaves as well, inked in green and with a couple of dots of red here and there.




I am having a lovely visit here in London, we went to see Kiki and Monty yesterday, photos to follow, and I will be driving home later, I just hope it will be a better journey than the drive down, when a two hour journey took 4 1/2 hours because of motorway delays 

Eggs Anyone?

Happy Monday everyone. I am down in London, doing a spot of family catching-up. One of the things I have brought down with me is an egg box. I looked at this tray, and thought 'hmmmm' and instead of throwing it away....

I painted it with cream acrylic paint, just the outside, then added a bit of old paper distress ink to the edges............

Then started to build a little scene. I used the fence from My Community, Clouds and chick from Create a Critter, and grass from Zooballoo. The little vines were from Zooballoo as well, and I added some tiny paper flowers

I filled it with those Kinder eggs that have a little toy inside, this one is for Kiki and Monty to share, so they will be able to have an egg each day during Easter - I have taken a few 'spares' with me as well in case they have friends visiting, or just fancy a chocolate fest if Mummy allows

Someone remarked that I don't seem to have met any crazy people lately, and it's true, my jaunts out into the big wide world outside the crafty cupboard have been quite boring. Some things continue to be a constant source of irritation/amusement though - 


The look on men's faces when their women say 'I just want to pop in here' outside a clothes shop.......


People who stand squarely in the middle of an aisle in the supermarket with a large trolley (shopping cart), gossiping with friends who they haven't met for years who have an equally large trolley. Together they manage to block off the entire aisle and they look at you in irritation when you mutter 'excuse me' and try to reach the teabags on the shelf behind them. One of these days, my trolley is going to turn into a battering ram....


Why is it that when I am parked on the top floor of a car park, and have the lift (elevator) blissfully to myself, all set to sail straight up to the top level, someone always jumps in just as the doors are closing, followed by other people who then press the buttons to stop on every floor. The same people press the button for floor one, take their trolley and look vaguely around and say 'oh I don't think this is our floor' and get back in again, pressing a few more buttons. Happens every time


These same people, who know that they have to put their ticket into a machine and pay before they can leave, stand at the ticket machine with a huge queue behind them, searching  through all their pockets and bags for the missing ticket. It is eventually located in a little zippy pocket in their purse, and we all have to wait while they find change for the machine, usually counted out in very small denomination coins. 'I'm two pence short dear, have you got two pennies...' 


They are of course the same people in front of you in a queue at the coffee shop, the ones who chat gaily to each other while the people in front are served, then when it is their turn, say 'oh, I don't know wait a minute' in a startled way to the server, taking about five minutes to look at the menu and discuss the merits of a skinny latte over a mocha with an extra shot......


Sometimes it's better just to stay at home!


See you tomorrow

The winners are.....................

Here is the list of winners that you have all been waiting for. Thanks to everyone who entered, Letraset are thrilled that so many of you are now receiving their newsletters, and Nikky is delighted that so many of you have been enthusiastic about her artwork. Don't forget, if you didn't win this time, Letraset and Polkadoodles sponsor Going Buggy, so there are frequent prizes from them on here. Plus, don't forget that Polkadoodles ship free to anywhere in the world, and Letraset have free shipping on orders over £10 to the UK and North America 


First of all, the big, huge prize of a complete set of Flexmarkers......  

and the winner is (ta da, big drum roll...................)

Kristie Maynard

Huge congratulations Kristie, email me with your full address and telephone number please, and your prize will be sent direct from Letraset by courier


Here are the winners of the Candy Doodle CD's - again drawn by random generator, but I haven't taken screenshots of all the numbers, otherwise I would be here until Monday, and I have things to do!

Monday: Crafty Cooky

Tuesday: Patty (Hap Scrappy)

Wednesday: Janlynn

Thursday: Scrappy Max

Friday: Ursula Uphof

So, congratulations to all of you, please email me with your address and I will mail them to you next week


A personal sob story, I can't tell you what a faff it has been doing this post, first of all, I had to go through all the entries for the Flexmarkers, to make sure there were no duplicate entries etc, and delete a few, in the middle of this, Mr Blogger decided to stop letting me do this, and wouldn't let me access the comments at all. Then at 1.30 A.M he decided (note that I have given the fictional Mr Blogger a male alter-ego...I wonder why?) that I could carry on as before, so I stumbled into bed at 2.30 A.M, only to find the next day that all my followers had disappeared. Yes, poof, gone, vanished,  all of you. Where did you all go without me? Was there some big buggy party going on somewhere that I wasn't invited too? Anyway, you are all back now, and if you all have hangovers, well, its your own fault, you should have asked me, I would have kept you all under control......


I am off to London to recover from all this bloggy trauma. It's Mothering Sunday here in the UK this weekend, so Happy Mothers Day to all my UK blog friends. I'll be back on Monday