Glitzy Butterfly

I've been messing around with glitter again, which means my clothes, hair, skin and even my slippers are looking a bit shiny.....I wanted to try a technique that I have been thinking about since my last foray into glitterland...

Firstly, I covered some white cardstock with scor-pal tape.....

and die cut this Quick Kutz (I can never remember the silly spelling of this brand, but you know who I mean...) butterfly out of the cardstock, then I peeled off the tape..... 

and broke out the glitter - these pots are by Silhouette and came with my Cameo machine. I dumped various colours onto the sticky butterfly, keeping the top fancy layer as a plain silver with just a touch of aqua .... 

I kept the card really plain, anything more would have been too much gliding of the lily! So a simple embossed background, and an elegant sentiment tile by Craftwork Cards

We recently got a TK Maxx here in my hometown - yes, it's exactly the same store as TJ Maxx in the USA, but for some bizarre reason they have to call themselves TK over here. I love going in and browsing because they carry a lot of my favourite American brands and it makes me feel a bit nostalgic for Florida. Today, I found these Tim Holtz stamps for £7.99. I don't do a lot of what I call arty stamping, but I pondered, and put them back...... 

Then I got home, and googled the stamps. They were selling here in the UK in online stores for £29 and £19. Well, arty or not, I wasn't going to pass up a bargain like that, so I went back into town and bought them. I have an idea for the 'reflection' stamps (they are 'kiss' stamps, so when you ink them up and 'kiss' another stamp with them, the writing will be the right way around not reversed. I could have fun with that). It's always nice to have new supplies to gloat over, particularly if they were a bargain.... I also saw some We R Memory Keepers corner chompers in the baby toys department. Obviously some shelf stacker scratched their heads and said 'any one know what these are? Okay, I'll throw them in with the toys, nobody will notice'

Hope you all have a great weekend, I'll be back tomorrow with the name of the person who will be getting the spring garden scrapbook pages. See you then x

Butterfly in white.....

A reminder that the lovely Julie Hickey is on Create and Craft TV today with all the new goodies from Craftwork Cards - I don't have the new Christmas papers yet, I am stalking the postman, but they look delightful and I can't wait to work with them.....

Do those of you who are not in the UK know that you can watch Create and Craft TV online? There are always a lot of demos, so you might enjoy it

A quick card from me today, I did this cut on my Cameo, just as a test really, but it cut so well it seemed a shame not to turn it into a card, I attached it (fiddly!) with some pinflair glue, and just added some little red gems here and there. So although it was never destined to become a card, the end result is quite pretty.....

Lots of 'must do this' stuff on my desk that I need to get cracking on. A huge box of stuff arrived today from Letraset, all destined to be posted all over the world by me as blog prizes over the next few months, so keep your eyes peeled...

I have only heard from one of the winners of the Angelberry CD, if I haven't heard anything from the second winner,  I will re draw the names next Wednesday.

See you tomorrow x 

Some net - and some winners!

Before I get onto the winners, let's talk about today's card.....

I'm quite pleased with this one. I cut some cardstock slightly smaller than the card front (5 x 7) and positioned some nestablitly circles onto it. I held them in place with tape and ran them through the big shot. Then I embossed the panel, and cut a piece of black netting and used double sided tape to stick that to the back of the panel, which I then attached to the front with foam tape

I used a sissix die to cut a black flourish, then punched some hot pink flowers which I layered and added a drop of black enamel dimensional paint to the centers - I figured someone who likes the sophistication of a black and white card would like the hot pink!

Time it took to make the card (plus fiddling around time when I couldn't get the design in my head to work out), 2 hours. Time to clear my desk afterwards one minute (I just put the cap back on the black enamel stuff, the rest of the place is littered with black and pink bits). Time it took to find my camera - the rest of the day. Where was it? In the bathroom. Don't ask. I don't know either. Oh dear, worrying senior moment.....

On to the winners of the Angelberry Christmas CD. I used random.org, but because of the camera problem, you have to take my word for that. The lucky winners are:

MizMaryAnn

and

littlebee

Congrats to you both, email me with your address and I will get those angels flying over to your place. For the unlucky ones, don't forget you can get the CD HERE and Nikky offers free worldwide shipping. There is a currency converter on the site

See you tomorrow x 

Get Well Card

This is a get well card for a little girl that I have never met, or am likely to meet. She is only six and has had a very big surgery on her legs, so I thought that as she lives in Canada it may cheer her up to have a card all the way from the UK...

Her mum has a blog that I love, she arranges the most fantastic themed parties, I marvel when I read about them - however a young mother with three children finds the time is beyond me! Go HERE if you want to browse around. So when I read that her little girl was going into hospital, I emailed her for her address and this is what I came up with....

The dog was cut using the Four Legged Friends Cricut cartridge (although why they called it that is beyond me when they have a snake and fish on the cartridge). Cut at 2 1/2" I decided to jazz him up a little and cut him in gingham. The sentiment is from the Cherryblossom Lane CD by Polkadoodles

So today the little doggie will be on his way to Quebec. Let's hope he brightens her day a little when he gets there...

See you tomorrow x

Little Girl's Scrapbook Page...

When I was searching for the Pirate scrapbook, I found this double page layout that was made for a magazine commission - after they photograph it they send it back. I must have made it about four years ago now. I did lots of pockets for tags.....

and used my Cricut a lot before adding some little Magnolia Tilda girls...

Does anyone have a little girl they scrapbook? Or know someone who does? It seems a shame for this to be languishing at the bottom of a drawer, if someone would like it I would be happy to send it to them. If more than one person wants it, I will put names in a hat, or toss a coin! I will send it to anywhere in the world. 
I can hear some of my regular blog friends saying 'what about Kiki?' Well her baby/little girl scrapbook is pretty much up to date, and she is now into cool stuff (really really cool, with accompanying eye rolls and hand waves. At nine!), so really these pages cry out for a pretty little toddler or two on them, I would be happy to see it going to a good home!
See you tomorrow x

Presenting the young scrapbooker of the year....

No card from me today - all my creativity has been spent helping Max with his holiday project of a scrapbook for school - the brief was to tell them all about yourself, what you did and what you liked. 

Luckily I had this really sweet fabric covered scrapbook hanging around at home...... 

I took lots of brightly coloured tags for him to write on.....

The Cricut came in handy, and I showed him how to make some lego tiles......

It was lucky that they have just had a holiday in California, so there was lots to write about......we added a lot more 'journalling' on Sunday, which was a lot less exciting for him than sorting photos and glueing everything down

and he did some drawings for some of the pages, this one is about a camping weekend at Warwick Castle, hence the knight.....

and while all this was going on, I set four year old Milo the job of cleaning the barbecue - he did a really good job, I may have to have him here to do a few odd jobs about the place.....

and the email? Well a few of you got it right, he had saved 11 tickets, pages (I don't quite know what he means by this, I think they were his leaflets) and had a box of supplies!

Don't forget if you haven't been here for a couple of days, you can still add your name to the last two posts to be in with a chance to win Angelberry Christmas.

See you tomorrow x

Another chance to win Angelberry Christmas

Here is another chance for you to win the Angelberry Christmas CD, full of Christmas images, papers and sentiments. Thank you Nikky, designer and owner of Polkadoodles for this generous givaway.

For my card today I used one of the pre-coloured images, a few layered ovals, pretty paper from the Cd and a Martha punch and I was done.....

Just leave your name under this post - if you didn't drop by yesterday, scroll down to see that post and leave a comment there as well. Only comments under either Saturday or Sunday's posts will be considered. You will not be entered for today's draw if you left a comment yesterday, so double up your chances and leave your name under both posts.

Good luck !

Win a Christmas CD

Here is a chance to win the latest Christmas Cd called Angelberry Christmas from Polkadoodles, full of very trendy little angels, background papers, embellishments, sentiments.....

I chose to colour this little angel in duckegg blue, to match the lovely snowflake paper. The ticket sentiment is also from the CD

All you have to do is leave your name here under this post. I will draw a winner on Saturday. In fact, I will draw TWO winners, because if you come back tomorrow, I have another CD to giveaway. So two of you will be all set for those Christmas cards that are going to creep up on us in the next few weeks!

My emails with six year old Max continue. He seems to be writing them himself now - the last one said:

I have 11 ticits

I have pajis

I have splis

love from Max xxx

Well, I can't wait to see what that is all about, can you?

Don't forget to drop by tomorrow for another chance to win Angelberry Christmas x 

Here's an idea....

Have you seen adhesive sheets? You can order them online, I think they are made by companies called JAC and 3L. They are also sold in Hobbycraft in the UK, and Michaels in the USA. I use them a lot, they are perfect for skinny little die cuts - whenever I use glue it always seeps out from under the die cut and makes a mess. They are waxy sheets covered with tiny glue dots. For this project, I cut a honeycomb background on my Cameo (honeycomb from the Silhouette store) and stuck it firmly to the sheet, then trimmed the sheet around the edge. I cut the same honeycomb twice more with double sided pattern papers....

Then I started adding the coloured shapes quite randomly into the honeycomb spaces, and rubbed on some mica flakes in silver and bronze (by Stampendous) into some of the vacant spaces, just a few flakes here and there......

Then I dumped ultra fine glitter from Martha Stewart glitter over the whole thing, rubbing gently with my fingers to adhere it to the vacant glue spaces.....beware the glitter blizzard when you shake it off! I found myself drinking a cup of tea with glitter floating in it.....

I found a tiny sentiment stamp, which just fitted the shape, I popped that one on with a foam pad.....

and here is the end result, as always, it is almost impossible to photograph glitter and shine, but this card has it in spades....

 this next photo captures a little of the sparkle...

So look out for these glue sheets, they are a great addition to your stash if you use a lot of die cuts, particularly the skinny little Memory Box dies

I have had another email from Max, the child is in a frenzy about his scrapbooking weekend. It will probably last for two hours on Saturday, then we will have to take a scooter break to the park!

See you tomorrow x

Snail Mail

The idea for this card came from one of those dollar stamps they have in Michaels - I always find odd sayings, and an idea for a card often pops into my head. I needed a snail, so I found this little lady in the Silhouette store and cut her out with my Cameo....

I thought it would make quite a good 'sorry I'm a bit late' birthday card, which seems to happen quite often these days. Another oopsie moment!

My day yesterday was a bit like the Curates egg - good in parts. I had a great lunch with some girlfriends, nice enough to sit outside and eat, with only the wasps for company. Then I spent hours making a project for a design team, only to discover that the merchandise I was highlighting had been discontinued. Sob. The rest of my day was spent getting together armfuls of stuff to take down to London on Friday. Young Max was given a holiday project by his school - to make a scrapbook. He is very excited and even sent me an email from his own email address to remind me (email? He is only six!) Still he wrote 'I love you very much' so that was enough to send me into a frenzy of preparation for the big project. You will get to see the work in progress of course....

See you tomorrow x

Some winners - and a monkey!

 I first created this little chap for a magazine commission, and was asked to use a 'sorry sentiment'. I really liked the way he turned out, so decided to reproduce him, this time with a happy little face.....

All the shapes were cut with my Cricut and George cartridge - it's my default cartridge and lives permanently in my machine, ready to churn out circles and hearts... I gave his some rosy cheeks with chalk. The spiky fur on top of his head was handcut and stuck on to the back of his face with a glue dot

The card is 6 x 6 and the sizes of the shapes are:
3 1/2" circle for face
4" oval
2 1/2" heart
2 x 1 1/4" circles for ears
4 x 1" circles for ears and eyes
I used a tiny circle punch for the pupils of the eyes

Now for some winners. The two randomly drawn winners are:

Bonbon Belles double CD - Guida Machado

Halloween download - Andrene

Congrats to you both, email me with your address/email address and I will got your prize in the mail.

See you tomorrow with some snail mail.....

More Halloween

Here's a couple more Halloween cards made with the great new download from Polkadoodles.....
This little guy has really gone to town on his costume...

I hand doodled a spiders web in the background... 

Yes, I admit I went to town a bit with the spooky bat fence, but since I haven't been able to find it for about two years, now I've unearthed it, it must be used before it disappears into the crafty black hole....

I cut out one of the bats from the paper and attached that to the image with a foam pad...

So there you go, you still have time to pop your name under the first Halloween post to be in with a chance to win. 

It's a Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK, which of course means nothing to me now that I am retired. When I look back to how I longed for these long weekends when I was at work, now it's just a bit of an inconvenience. Post office closed? Drat, I walked here especially, and why is Costa Coffee so crowded? Who are all these people sitting in my usual spot?
Funny how perspectives change....

See you tomorrow x 

Win a Halloween download....

 I warned you it was going to be spooky here today....Nikky Hall the talented Polkadoodles designer has come up with a great digital download for Halloween - you get 54 images, and just look at the papers! You can get it HERE for only £3.49 (that's about $5.50  and you can print them out over and over, bargain). No waiting around for the postman either, you can start playing right away. Nikky is offering a free download bundle to one of you, leave your name under this post and I will draw a winner on Tuesday



Couldn't resist this little witchie cat....

and I knew that Martha Stewart bat fence punch that I bought on clearance would come into it's own one day (normally, I cut off the bats, and use it as a regular fence...) Love this paper as well, it graduates from purple to orange..I added quite a lot of inking to these cards, I think it adds to the spooky look 

I really like this next image, it would be perfect for a teenage girl, and lets face it, they are the ones who really go to town with the make-up and skin tight costumes on October 31st!I hand cut a spooky banner to match the background paper, although there are some great banners on the download. I found some orange glitter letters to spell the word...

I'll have two more cards to show you tomorrow from the download. 

I think the UK are catching up with the USA in going to town at Halloween, I was talking to someone earlier this week who said that her neighbour took a week to decorate her house, inside and out for Halloween, including a coffin in the hall. Yuk! A couple of cute pumpkins and cats, and maybe a little friendly ghost would be my limit, if I was going to make an effort (which I don't, cards for the grandchildren are my limit, but maybe one day I will throw a party) How about you? 

More BonBon Belles Cards

 A couple more quick cards today, both made with the Colourburst BonBon Belles CD from Polkadoodles. Don't forget you still have a chance to win one, scroll down to yesterday's post and leave your name

The first card today was the result of finding this stamp for a child's birthday - an old Stampin Up stamp that I have had for ever

Again, I wanted to showcase how you can get great results even if colouring images is not your forte - you can print them out in black and white, or ready coloured like this one. I used a ready made easel card from Craftwork Cards, and just cut a blue scallop to fit using a Spellbinders die. The paper was printed from the CD as well as the image

You can't get much more clean and simple than this next one - my three girls (daughter and daughters in law) love unfussy cards, so this one will come in useful. I printed out the beach huts (aren't they cute?) already coloured, simply cut them out and popped them on with foam pads. The banner was printed as well, and the individual flags cut out and popped on. I drew a thread between the flags with a black fine liner pen

I have a lot of regular questions asked about using these CD's so thought it would be unseful to list those most frequently asked

How much ink do you use?
Well I print a LOT of stuff, I just have a regular HP inkjet printer and I change the cartridges about three times a year, but I probably print out a lot more than the average crafter

Do you need special computer skills to use the CD's
Well, if you do, I don't have them. I just click on print, windows gives me an option of what size I want - full page for papers, small for images etc, and away I go....believe me, if I can do it, anybody can. I know that you can manipulate the images by importing them into photo editing software and I have seen fabulous work by people who do this, but for me, simple is best and I haven't felt the need to mess around when I can just click on 'print'

Does the ink run when you print images then colour them?
I have honestly never had a problem, and as I said I have a very ordinary cheapo printer. I mainly use Promarkers and Flexmarkers which are alcohol based and have never had a problem.

What type of paper do you print on?
I usually use thin cardstock - I still have stacks of Georgia Pacific which I bought from Walmart in the USA and find that works really well, it goes through the printer easily and is more substantial than printing onto copy paper - even good copy paper. I think Staples do a similar weight cardstock in the UK 

Hope this clears up a few questions. The bottom line is that they are VERY user friendly.

I finally got around to changing my hairdresser, I haven't been very happy since my long standing lady who understood every hair on my head, decided to up sticks and go and live in Tenerife (honestly, how inconsiderate of her!), and her replacement just didn't get it right. So I stalked women with short hair until I found someone with hair that looked good and asked them who cut it. So, off I went to make an appointment. What a palaver. They made me fill a form in with all my details, including my date of birth. No way! Are they going to send me a birthday cake with the right amount of candles on it? I don't think so. So that stayed blank. Then they gave me a skin test and put a bit of dye on my arm to see if I got a reaction, and carefully covered it with a plaster, which I tore off as soon as I left the salon. So by now they had as many details from me as my doctor and dentist, all that was missing was my national insurance number and blood group. Happily, the new girl did a good job, or at least it looks good today. Tomorrow will be the test when I morph into a hedgehog overnight.....

See you tomorrow when I may have a spooky surprise for you....x