Thursdays challenge . . . . card made

The papers I got with my last issue of Card Making and Papercraft, and used yesterday, were still lying on my work table because I hate to put things like this away . . . . so I thought I would see if I could use up some scraps on the delightful sketch challenge over on craftbubble's Lets Get Stamping group . . . . what do you think? The image was coloured using my fave combo Pro Markers and Atyou Spica glitter pens. I used a circle punch round the sentiment and then two sizes of retro punch to create the flower (curled to give dimension) and then three grey and two tiny white faux pearls. The stamps used for the sentiment and background were by Hero Arts and the image was generously provided by a fellow crafter (thank you to you, generous crafter) - hope you like it and, again, wish me luck!!!

Where's this week going?

Honestly? I've no idea - I don't seem to have done anything earth shattering and yet here we are . . . Thursday.

Apparently, I'm on a bit of a cutesy roll this week and managed to run up this little treasure (in my humble opinion) using a stamped image sent to me by a generous fellow crafter (thank you to you) and some of the free papers from My Minds Eye, received in the latest issue of Card Making and Paper Craft. I coloured her using Pro Markers and Atyou Spica glitter pens and just atouch of holographic glitter glue before cutting her out and mounting her on a patterned green panel. I cut a piece of DCWV green metallic card and rounded the corners before running through my die cutter with the delightful swiss dots embossing folder. I cut a panel of MMI patterned paper slightly smaller than the base card and stuck it down. I then cut a narrow panel of a co-ordinating MMI paper and used a Martha Stewart edging punch. Since this automatically generates a series of holes I then "sewed" along that line using brown thread. Once I'd stuck all the pieces down I then added five faux gemstones to the points of the punched panel and there you have it - hope you like it!

Well, over on craftbubble's "Let Get Stamping Group" Sharon is running a daily stamp giveaway for cards on a daily theme, yesterday's theme was "movement" and the winner was Helen (Croms) - Congratulations and well done. Today's theme is to follow the sketchie shown - interested? Well pop along to www.craftbubble.com and check out the Let's Get Stamping groups challenge thread - GOOD LUCK

Hubby's off to the dentist and then we plan grocery shopping so another day in dullsville by the sound of it!

Hope you have more exciting things on your agenda. Look forward to catching up with you all .......... later

Wednesday's challenge is a card with movement!

Today’s challenge over on craftbubbles, Lets Get Stamping Group was to include movement on the card – ages ago I bought some windmill templates (back when Lakeland Plastics still sold craft stuff) that I’ve never used – until today!!. I stamped my image using Memento Tuxedo Black and then coloured her using Pro Markers and Atyou Spica Glitter pens, drawing glittery flowers on her dress. I then used distress inks in mustard seed, peeled paint and crushed olive around the edges of the image panel before mounting on hand made yellow paper and adhering lime ribbon to the yellow panel. I then used some orange patterned paper from my Colossal Stack and stuck everything on to that. I then drew round, cut out and folded my windmill (using some of those fab double sided papers from Costco again), fastening with the yellow brad in the middle which was then used to attach the windmill to the orange panel which I then stuck on to my white base card before finishing off with a couple of amber faux gems in the centres of the flowers on the orange paper. I also stamped my sentiment, punched it out using a round punch and then stuck it on to a Martha Stewart punched flower in green before using 3D stickies to attach to the top of the ribbon and then highlighted my windmill with holographic glitter glue and set aside to dry . . . hope you like it. As it’s an entry in a competition, please wish me luck!

And after ................

Felt so guilty about that dreadful mess that I simply had to have a bit of a tidy up ..... but where to put everything? My husband proudly (but rather foolishly in my mind) suggested a round black object situated just outside the back door but as this is the bin I chose to ignore his helpful suggestion in favour of this - a compromise . . . . whaddya think - better? I suppose the test is that at least I CAN get crafting here whereas, in it's previous state - that would have been a definite NOOOOOOOOOO.

So, all that's left to decide is what to do . . . .

Well today's Stamp Giveaway Challenge over on Craftbubbles Let's Get Stamping Group is to feature movement on a card so just maybe that's the way to go . . . . BBL then!

I've spoken to my friend - she did get to see her specialist and is scheduled for double knee replacement in August but has cellulitis to get rid of first. Her son-in-law had this heart operation and is recovering in hospital in the high dependency ward (having been moved from intensive care which is such a good sign in only 24 hours) - so YAY's all round

What's on your workdesk Wednesday?

Over on the new Craftbubble group "Craft Mad and Loving It" a new thread's been started with "what's on your work desk Wednesday" - it's been going around a while and seems pretty popular in blogland. So, I've just taken a photo of what's on my workdesk and it's fairly obvious that, before ANY work can take place there, some SERIOUS tidying needs to take place!!!! The blue squared cutting mat is my ONLY workspace and you can't see much of that - looks like I have a work space that's about A5!! Ooops

Wish me luck on the tidying front - most crafters work in a mess - but this is just crazy!!! Coffee first then tidying perhaps ......... hope your work area is tidier than mine and looking forward to seeing the piccies over on CM&LI!!!

And as a P.S. I was the lucky winner of Tuesday's Stamp Giveaway over on craftbubbles Lets Get Stamping Group - with my Diamond wedding anniversary card - so thank you Sharon - can't wait for my prize.

Morning - here we are again hump day Wednesday

so it's all down hill to the weekend . . . and it's raining (again)! I have friend's with birthdays today and tomorrow and honestly, the cards ARE in the post so Happy Birthday to Sandra for today and to Alan for tomorrow - I can't tell you how old they are because then I would have to kill you .... ALL! If you read my post about the BBQ for the surrogates at the weekend then you will have seen the back view of Alan already. My friend, Dorothy, was scheduled to see a specialist about her knees on Monday so I must ring her today to see how she got on and also to find out how her SIL's major operation (also Monday) went - so, busy day catching up for me, plus the inevitable domesticity of shopping, washing, ironing etc. However necessary this all is it really doesn't sound exciting (though I'm obviously hoping to hear good news from my pal Dorothy) and I hope to craft again at some point, there's also the third of Sharon Armstrongs five daily Stamp Giveaways over on http://www.craftbubble.com/ on the Lets Get Stamping group. Tuesday's competition closes at 08:00 this morning with the winner being revealed at 09:00 (or thereabouts). Good Luck everybody.

Now I'm not saying I live in the middle of nowhere but this is NOT a common site round here - blackbirds, magpies, crows, sparrows and the occasional sparrow hawk but this ............. NOT common at all - a blooming HERON!!! It was seen on the roof of one of our neighbours last evening and yes, they keep (or might that be KEPT?) a well stocked koi pond - one has to hope they also keep it covered!!!! We watched it for a couple of minutes and watched it "walk" down their roof in a most ungainly fashion before descending on to the unsuspecting neighbours back lawn and/or pond - I do hope the fish were smart enough to keep their heads down!!! else it will have been a fish supper for the heron!

Today's Lets Get Stamping Challenge

Hello again, today's stamp giveaway challenge over on http://www.craftbubble.com/ on the Lets Get Stamping group had to feature embossing so here is my card (which I've cunningly managed to turn in to one of my anniversary commissions!). I took a white base card which had tiny pink flecks in it. I cut a piece of ribbed silver card and cut it very slightly smaller than the base card, rounded the corners, tied dark pink organza ribbon in a bow round it and then attached to the base card. I stamped and embossed the "couple" image using versamark ink and sparklensprinkle embossing powder in "Agatha" (a fab black/gold two tone glitter e.p.) and rounded the corners of the image panel. I printed "On your diamond anniversary" on 100gsm paper and cut round. Then, using a waterbrush I drew round the sentiment on pink mulberry paper and also cut a rectangular piece - making a wet line makes tearing mulberry paper sooo very much easier. I then attached the sentiment to the mulberry paper and then to a piece of gold card which I had run through my die cut machine and inside a cuttlebug "Swiss Dots" embossing folder. I also did the same to a piece of gold card slightly larger than my couple image too and then attached the mulberry paper behind that and stuck it down over the ribbon before centring my image on the panel. I then finished the card by applying two faux "diamonds" - HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! Hope you like it and I hope the person who commissioned it will too. Who knows? I may even win a prize over on LGS!! Wish me luck!

Morning and welcome to Triffik Tuesday

mind you, no idea what's so triffik about it really as I have about a ton of ironing and no wish to get started - it's the chore I hate most in all the world (sorry - next to cleaning windows).

Still, it IS Tuesday and that usually means a little time spent watching QVC and crafting along - however, this week's show is apparently 1:00 -3:00 as opposed to 14:00 - 16:00 so I shall have to try to remember. According to the QVC guide it's because Sheryl Crow has a show at 15:00!!!!

There's also another competition on Lets Get Stamping for the week's stamp giveaway over on http://www.craftbubble.com/ - wonder what today's theme will be . . . and I still have two anniversary cards to do as commissions for friends. UPDATED to read: todays challenge over on Lets Get Stamping is a card featuring EMBOSSING (dry, heat, embossing folders all acceptable for entries). If you want to have a go you have until 08:00 Wednesday to post your photo either in the thread or on the Lets Get Stamping gallery - good luck, and WELL DONE to Sharon (Doodles) on winning the Monday competition with her lovely easel card which you can see here

Ran up this cute little card last evening, using this cute sugar nellie image and colouring with pro markers and highlighting with holographic glitter. I rounded the corners and edged with a deep pink ink before attaching to a piece of patterned (and flittered) card from a fabulous DCWV stack. I had a perfect offcut of ribbed pink which I attached centrally to the card before adhering the image panel and finished off with two faux gemstones.

BBL by which time, hopefully, I'll have found something interesting to write about . . . .

PINK?????? Not normally!

Hi there peeps.

Well, over on craftbubble on the Lets Get Stamping Group, Sharon (the groups founder) is offering a stamp prize every day this week. Today's competition is to produce a card, using stamping, and featuring the colour ...... PINK. Given the name on my blog you'd be surprised to note that I don't use a lot of pink but . . . never one to give in I set about this challenge, with some gusto and this card is what I came up with. The image is coloured using Pro Markers and Atyou Spica glitter pens (which look terrifically twinkly in real life - not so much in the photograph though). I've die cut two ovals in pink plain and pink patterned paper - the plain pink is by DCWV which I then ran through a cuttlebug embossing folder before highlighting with deep pink ink. The two ovals were layered together and then adhered to some pink star paper from my colossal stack and some pink check ribbon knotted round the card and the finishing touch of two faux pearls.

So why not pop along and have a look, maybe even have a go - who knows? You might win! GOOD LUCK - there's a prize per day until Friday.

I've also entered this for the challenge #8 (glitter and sparkles) over at Pear Tree Designs so please wish me luck there too.

Morning readers

DULL DULL DULL - describes both the weather and my day . . . . NOTHING planned other than a trip to the garage to collect parts ordered last week and a trip to Screwfix to return some "stuff"!!! I can hardly contain my excitement, matched only by the weather - oh except that it rained overnight thank goodness, so the grass is probably super grateful - not so the patio furniture (but it'll dry!)

Yesterday's BBQ is all cleared up but we are left with one knotty problem . . . what to do with all that beer!! Normally, we get through a fair bit at a BBQ with all the surrogates present but we had Harry in attendance this time so had to at least TRY to behave like responsible adults! Alan was driving and Chris was on the chilled water and we all drank less because it was a Sunday and most people had to get up for work this morning . . . . not US btw!

Volunteers to assist us with our knotty problem should aim to arrive once the "sun is over the yard arm" and will be directed to long stay parking!!!!!

Have a great Monday everyone

BBQ

BBQ (I think) was a success and the weather cooled down just enough to make it pleasant. Everything kicked off around 3:00 and went swimmingly and, for once, all the food was done at the same time - here's hubby explaining how this is achieved ..................


Meanwhile, the rest of the party amuses themselves - Nik on her cell phone
After we've eaten and drunk as much as we think we possibly can then it's time for a few of the usual silly games - most of which seem to involve young Harry (to keep him from being bored, I think). Improvised games of football and skittles (with cans)! followed.

And then . . . . around Harry's bed time it seemed a good idea to head off in to the sunset with the "how many people can you squish in to a car" game! Hopefully, they were full enough not to want to go home and make a sandwich!!!!

What's on your agenda today peeps?

What's on your agenda today? Well I know my own dear hubby will be off flying his model planes till lunchtime which will leave me entirely free to craft until his return. THEN all hell will break loose as we make preparations for the surrogates arrival for a BBQ kicking off around 3:00. There will be seven of us plus seven year old Harry (those of you who know me will realise that I don't really "do" children - they bring me out in a cold sweat so please - wish me luck!). Which reminds me, must charge my camera so that I can record the event for posterity (and, possibly, blackmail!!!!!) - do check back later!

And so far, I have managed this one card . . . isn't the Penny Black image lovely? For the front of the card I used twinkling H2O's directly on to the stamp and (once dry) used distress inks in old paper and tattered rose to give some colour before mounting on some patterned pink paper to which I had attached a length of turquoise checked ribbon (well I still had the supplies out from yesterday!) and then on to an offcut of the fab turquoise DCWV card. I then stamped the sentiment and punched a circle round it before attaching to a turquoise DCWV punched flower. I then finished the card off with three pearls. For the envelope I used the small sentiment stamp but brought out the larger identical sentiment stamp for the insert and also stamped the PB flower stamp in a deep pink. Hope you think it works.

I just found out that I won candy from the lovely Debs on her blog here too - I've NEVER won candy before, so thank you Debs.

Have a Stupendous Sunday, however you spend it.

Who wants Candy?

Who wants candy????? There are no fewer than FIVE pieces of blog candy here if that is something you might be interested in! You have until July 31st to register - GOOD LUCK

Kick up your heels!!

Well, I love all things art deco and that includes flappers - this isn't quite a flapper but it's close and she IS adorable. This wonderful Magnolia image was sent to me by a fellow crafter and I do thank them. She's coloured using Pro Markers and the WONDERFUL Atyou Spica glitter pens. I've distressed the edges of the panels and also applied Distress Inks in Olive and Shabby Shutters, tied some raffia round the base panel and to tie two gorgeous glitter buttons together and there you have it. BTW the stripey backing panel is the reverse of the green panel and came from the pack of fab double sided papers from COSTCO at around 7p per sheet - you gotta get some if you have access to a Costco and they still have any left!!! For the insert I had a fab stamp which says "Kick up your heels" and also some great Hero Arts shoes which kind of says it all - making this a great feel good card - hope you like it and thanks for stopping by, I was feeling kind of out of sorts because normally I make sketchies on a Saturday but, having set this weeks mine was done a while ago!!! - but now I feel chirpier!

Todays Sketchie Challege

Over on Craftbubble there's a weekly challenge set on the Lets Get Stamping group and every four weeks there's a sketchie set by a Guest Design Team Member and this week, it's my turn to set the challenge. So here's my sketch. My twist was that the card made should be a Christmas card (I know, I know, obsessed much by Christmas cards!?!?!?!?) AND that it should feature some form of thread on the card too . . . off you go peeps, have some fun!








And here's the card I came up with. I used my fab new Inkadinkado Father Christmas stamp and my Penny Black sentiment stamp and some glitter chipboard stars. It doesn't show up real well at such a small scale but there are no fewer than SEVEN rows of gold thread on this card. Hope you like it.

Oh and I forgot to mention that there's a prize at the end of the week too . . . . one lucky winner gets to choose - animals OR flowers

P.S. you only have until midnight tonight to post on Debs blog for her blog candy to celebrate her 100th post! YAY, well done Debs - I'm catching you up though!

On a scrap booking roll

Having printed off a whole load of piccies of our trip to Dubai and then done absolutely nothing with them (since March) I got round to doing a monochrome layout for the Scrap Addicts July challenge over on Craftbubble . . . but was still left with a few piccies which led me nicely on to another monochrome layout but in reverse. Again, the theme "scrapbookimg by numbers" suggested that using five photos meant using five embellishments and having five pieces of journalling so I used more of the fabby glitter embellishments (acquired for one whole pound from a store called "WHAT!" - honestly!) supplementing with a black/white/black flower made using my retro flower punches and a MS leaf, I then positioned five faux black pearls and then five black faux gemstones in the curly bits of the large embellishment. A nice memory of a fab holiday with our lovely friends, Mary and Barry. Thank you for looking, and enjoy your Friday

TGI Friday once more

Morning peeps,


Well, actually I'm writing this before heading off to bed . . . it's Friday again and I don't what you all have planned but we have a BBQ for which hubby needs to shop today! It's the surrogate family coming - that's two surrogate daughters and their partners, one son and the real (as opposed to surrogate) mum, Dawn. It's probably going to be boozy and there MAY be photographs of a graphic nature (ie showing drunkeness and otherwise having a good time) - unless it rains!!! No, don't even think about that!


Anyway, no-one's sent me anything particularly funny this week for me to put in this post but rather than leave it blank I put this to you . . . . . it's not a towel so please don't step on it and (in true Rolf Harris fashion) can you tell what it is????? Have a great weekend everyone.

With apologies to my friends some of whom may already have seen this cutie!

Pheww - finally got round to scrap booking my March trip!

Ever wondered where the time goes? We went to Dubai in March, with friends, and I've only today got round to doing anything with any of the photos. I think I have a couple more pages to do in order to cover the fab time we had in Dubai and on the cruise around the United Arab Emirates with our lovely friends, Mary and Barry from Blackpool. I was motivated by Clares July challenge on the Scrap Addicts group over on craftbubble with its theme of Scrap Booking by number . . . since I used four photographs I also featured four embellishments and four pieces of journalling (two hidden on pull out tags - see the black ribbon). Thank heavens I've started to scrap these pages as we have the lovely Mary and Barry coming to stay with us in August and it would be awful if we hadn't recorded the celebration of their 45th wedding anniversary - the reason for the trip!!

How's your day going?

Well I decided that I needed to make some ATC's as I'm a bit backed up with my swaps! I've no idea where the time goes and yet it goes . . . and I'm sure that many of my fellow crafters say the same.

Having bought the fab Paper Artsy Plate (HP1004) at Newbury Artstamps last weekend then it should come as no surprise that I really couldn't wait much longer to use it. Unfortunately the flowers are really a bit too big to use on an ATC - frankly so's this bird cage but a little poetic licence and it seems to have worked!! I used Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Shabby Shutters, Olive, Worn Lipstick and Tea Dye) to make the background and then lightly dusted gold Perfect Pearls over the surface before it was quite dry, to give it a sheen, before stamping the Paper Artsy flower heads in Memento ink (Tuxedo Black) on the backing card (having first set the perfect pearls with hairspray). The Bird cage was stamped in Royal Purple Stazon (my black dried out!) on acetate and then cut out. I punched a hole through the acetate and distressed background and attached the bird cage using a lovely chocolate coloured sugared brad so that the ATC would have movement. I then adhered the whole lot to a plain white ATC to conceal the "legs" of the sugared brad.

The second ATC was a much simpler card to make in that I simply covered a White ATC with pink card. I then stamped my Hero Arts Cuckoo Clock clear stamp using Memento ink in Tuxedo Black on white card before colouring using Pro Markers and cutting out. I then used my wonderful Scotch Quick dry adhesive to attach the cuckoo clock to my ATC.

I hope you like both of these, always pleased to take comments, folks.

In the meantime, the weather's been far too dull to do much round here today so all I seem to have achieved is to have done some domestic chores and made a couple of ATC's - though I did watch a real tear jerker movie called NOEL - you guessed it, a Christmas Movie with Susan Sarandon. Part of me quite enjoyed it and part of me thought - OMG!!! but hey, we can't all like all the movies, can we?

I was supposed to be meeting up with a friend this evening, for dinner (usually pizza or Indian) but she has a close friend in hospital right now and, fortunately, there'll be plenty of other chances for us to meet up. It does however, leave the dilemma of what to have for dinner. My super hubby has come up with . . . . . fajitas!!! YAY, looking forward to that now - shame it's only 3pm! How lucky am I that he's such a good cook eh?

Back from the surrogates

Who'd'a thunk it when we answered the phone yesterday! Surrogate daughter was on the phone asking for some help with some "stuff" she'd bought from W H Smith - it turned out to be some pre scored card for an inkjet printer. She needed to make two cards in quick succession so my hubby set about sourcing and downloading some free software to allow her to do just this. A couple of hours later and she's happy because she has cards for her BIL and another person, using photos of her seven year old son and of her BIL (wearing a silly hat and poking his tongue out for the camera!). We chose to walk down because they only live about a seven minute walk away - regrettably it's all up hill on the way home!! And by the time we left it had started to rain too - so we were a bit damp when we got home so we sat down with a small glass and some cheese whilst we dried out.

So, goodnight dear reader - wonder what will happen tomorrow!!