Christmas Confetti

This card was put together because I wanted to clear out some of the multitude of magazine freebies that have accumulated in a corner of the craft room.  There are some lovely papers and I have to say they're much nicer quality than magazines used to supply so it seems such a shame not to use them. 
Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge #12 was to use word confetti and, as usual, I'm late with my entry but no matter.

I embossed the red base card with the Cuttlebug - Snowflake folder and then simply cut the patterned paper from the freebie sheet before matting onto gold mirri card from the scrap box.  The circle greetings were cut out, matted onto gold mirri punched circles and popped onto the front with foam pads.

Tree- mendous

My Graphico have a theme challenge and a sketch challenge every week, which effectively means they offer a challenge choice to everyone to join in with one or both, depending on your time and inclination.
I used their lovely tree freebie images to join in this week with their Challenge #41 - In Threes.
I opened the trees in PSP (Paint Shop Pro) played with the sizes and then printed them off along with a computer generated sentiment, before cutting around the lot with scalloped scissors. 

There was a small strip of spotty paper in my scrap box which provided a nice backdrop and this was matted onto yellow card.  The green card was embossed on the cuttlebug with swiss dots and then matted onto another piece of yellow.  A small yellow bow is the perfect embellishment for the scalloped oval greeting.
Once again I find myself eligible for more than one challenge ...
The fresh spring colours allow me a second entry to Rosie_D's Challenge #67 - Yellow, Green and White and also to join in at Charisma Cardz #12- Spring.
Rainbow Lady's current challenge asks "In my garden I see ..."   - trees and birds are both visible in mine, (although admittedly they don't look like these ones), but then again, she never asked for real life ones so reckon I'm pretty safe and Pixie Cottage Challenge 12 is to use circles - there are plenty of them here with the globe trees, the spotty paper and the swiss dots.
Hope you all enjoy a wonderful weekend ... oh and remember we "Spring  Forward" an hour on Saturday night/Sunday morning if you're in UK!

Bah! Humbug! Challenge 11 - Peel Offs

Most crafters I have spoken to will admit that their initial tentative journey into cardmaking probably started with a few bits of different coloured cardstock, some stickers and those good old essentials - the peel offs.
**It's also worth adding that the majority of us would inwardly cringe if confronted with one of those early cards now ... and I definitely include myself in that statement.** 
The thing we must remember is that the supplies which we find just a click or a telephone call away from us today, simply weren't available to homecrafters then and ... probably more importantly ... none of us wanted to be spending large amounts of money on fancy products and gadgets that we may or may not use. 
Peel offs and stickers were one of the cheapest and easiest products to use ... so we bought them and fearlessly used them on everything.  Nowadays we have a multitude of gorgeous products and clever gadgets which help us to achieve a more professional finish on our projects - but the peel off still has it's place in your stash and there are some fabulous designs and wonderful colourways available - in fact to tell the truth, we are positively spoiled for choice.
Our Bah Humbug! Challenge  this week is for you to show us what you can do with yours and feel free to be as basic or creative as you like.
These days the majority of my own peel offs are simple greetings, messages, borders and frames.  They are particularly handy if I need to make a quick card and don't have time to stamp or emboss a greeting or can't be bothered printing one from the PC. 
Just strip'n' stick and it's job done! 
However,  I also have a few more elaborate designs tucked away that need to be stitched or built into a 3D embellishment for instance ... I somehow never quite get around to using them. 

On this card I have applied simple holographic peel off borders to frame this vintage image before adding adhesive gems which cleverly hide the non-mitred corners.
I scored parallel lines onto the blue backing card and then ran more of the same peel off between those lines to act as a division between the image and the tartan ribbon.  Finally, I randomly attached silver star peel offs to the ribbon and mounted it all onto a white DL card blank.

Not the most complicated thing in the world to do but quite effective just the same.
I'm sure you'll have far more exciting peel off ideas tickling away at your grey matter, so why don't you share them by joining in our Bah! Humbug! Challenge? 
Who knows?  We may even start a mega-revival of the humble peel off and discover that it can be a far more exciting and versatile product than it looks.  Like so many other things in craftland ... you simply need to know what to do with it.

E is for Easter

Many challenge blogs have Easter or Spring as their theme at the moment, which is understandable given the time of year.  This coincidence is Oh Soooooo handy for 'slowpokes' like me because we can join in with several challenges at the same time using only one card - YAY!
This cute Penny Black Butterfly Hedgie stamp is one of my favourites because it is easy peasy to colour but more importantly, because it's suitable for a multitude of different occasions.

I coloured it with Promarkers and then added a soft blue sky with Dovecraft chalk.  There were some silver peel off butterflies lying on the desk so I joined 3 together to make a 3D butterfly for the corner and used a silver Sakura gel pen for the dotty trail. 
Psssstttt ... Don't tell anyone but I needed something to cover an ink smudge - whoops!

Some pretty yellow floral paper from my stash,
... a dash of plain green cardstock,
... a strip of white embossed dotty card,
... some adhesive gems to add some glimmer.
and a peel off greeting mounted onto a fabric flower finish the design.
So here's the list of challenges this card should qualify for 
Papertake Weekly Challenge #37 - sketch
Simon Says Stamp - Easter/Spring with Glimmer
Stampin' For The Weekend #35 - Easter
Stamp With Fun #51 - Easter
Our Creative Corner - Easter
Rosie- D's #67 - Yellow, Green and White
Passion For Promarker #44 -Springtime (with an animal) 

Q: Whooo's a Twit-Twoo?

A: Me!
Q: Why?
A: 'Cos I forgot someone's birthday and didn't send a card - DUH! 
That little snippet of information probably won't come as any great surprise to a lot of people who know me as they can see me getting more scatterbrained as the years go by.   Hey Ho ... old age doesn't come by itself LOL!

Anyway ... my little moment of amnesia meant I needed to make a belated birthday card and as there was a box from QVC sitting on the desk with DB's Spring Woodland kit inside, I thought I'd have a wee play. 

You will have guessed from the title of my post that I opted for the owl image from all the cute woodland characters, but that came about because it fitted the idea I had for the greeting. 
The cream base card was 8" x 8" and I sliced a section from the front before layering the back panel with some pretty double sided patterned card, (from the kit), matted onto silver mirri card.  The remaining front panel was then decorated wih the reversed patterned card, also matted onto silver mirri.

The die cut wavy border was then attached with foam pads - this was already foiled so no cutting out was needed. 
From the remaining strips of patterned card I punched the circles for the alphabet stickers, (not included) and then cut 2 x Nestability scalloped ovals with my cuttlebug - one of which I trimmed and overlapped to make it big enough for the owl image, (can you see the join?) - and then I used the offcut for the alphabet stickers on the front before doodling with a white gel pen.

Inside I opted to use the cute die cut bunny message which was layered onto the last wee scrap of pink dotty card - and that's it!
I now need to get this card in the post or it'll be a week late - and that just won't do!
I'm going to submit this card as an entry at  
Crafty Cardmakers whose theme is Spring
and also 
Daring Cardmakers, for their theme of Tweetie Pie, if multiple entries are allowed.

Springtime Has Sprung ...

... or so we are reliably informed by the weather forecasters and if today was anything to go by then they may be right ... for once.  We certainly had a good dose of sunshine today with only one brief shower and the temperature reached double figures so it's all good.
I spent this afternoon making a couple of cards for birthdays which are looming on the horizon. 

The first one for my eldest brother, used the lovely bird silhouette again from My Graphico but this time I wanted a more masculine look so it was printed onto plain white card and then matted with black.  I cut away a portion of the base card front, trimmed it slightly and then mounted it onto a slightly larger piece of black card before re-attaching it onto the back panel of the base card. 

Another strip of black card was embossed with my Cuttlebug Birthday embossing folder and this was then layered on top with some knotted silver/black checked ribbon for decoration.
Daring Cardmakers Challenge "Tweetie pie" asks that we use birds on our creations this week so I'm entering this card.

My daughter's friend celebrates her 15th birthday tomorrow and as she is allegedly a 'Cupcake Queen' it was the obvious choice to make her a cupcake card.  

I matted a strip of embossed lilac card onto silver mirri card and then laid it across the pretty floral patterned paper.  White satin ribbon, overlaid with some narrow pink velvet ribbon - very tactile - was wrapped around the embossed panel before adding the cupcake and frame which were freebies from a magazine last year. 
Hopefully this card is ok for Charisma Cardz Challenge "Something For The Kids" - (not sure the young lady it is intended for will appreciate being referred to as a kid but hey ho!) - and the current Kaboodle Doodles Challenge is "Happy Birthday" so I can sneak in there too.

Finally, I'd like to show a wee card I made whilst in York - can't believe that was a whole month ago!
Irene brought her cute Cuddly Buddly rainbear stamp with her and was giving us a tutorial on how to use poly pencils and she also allowed us to play with her Nellie Snellen multiframe dies (which seem to be all the rage at the moment) - please note that the blotchy fur look was intentional LOL! 

The bright blue and yellow papers just shout 'Spring' to me so I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
The Pink Elephant Challenge #58. 
Crazy 4 Challenge - C4C29
Lots To Do Challenge #11
The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #75
Rosie-D's Challenge #66
Allsorts Challenge #44 

I overlaid the blue negative from the die cut frame onto a yellow square of paper to decorate inside the card - waste not ... want not.

Bah! Humbug! Challenge 10 - Vintage

Another week ... another Friday ... another Bah! Humbug! Challenge. 
We are now into double figures with our 2010 Christmas cards AND it's only March!   Some of you will have even more than that if you have joined in with other similar challenge blogs so a well deserved round of applause for you.

This week's challenge is to make a VINTAGE Christmas card or project ... so get your thinking caps on and show us what vintage ideas you can come up with.

As you would expect from me, I chose the easy option and turned to my faithful HOTP Christmas Pad, (part of a very old QVC TSV kit), for the background papers, which I matted onto gold mirri card before trimming with decorative scissors. 
The beautiful image was courtesy of Dover Publications who offer some wonderful free images every week via e-mail.  All you have to do is register your e-mail address with them and then click on the links they send to save the images to your PC ... and it's all free!  

I wanted to incorporate some paper pleating into my card this week to join in with Fab's Big Christmas Cards Challenge which I've neglected recently, so decided to make an easel card and see whether the paper pleats would act as the support.  I folded the pleats and then stuck the strip onto a piece of gold mirri before adding a gold brad just in case it wasn't strong enough.  It really isn't needed though so probably won't bother if I ever make another one. 

I may add a sentiment panel, a bow or an embellishment of some kind to it at a later date ... I haven't quite decided yet.
I also noticed that Winter Wonderland Challenge blog has a Victorian Christmas theme this week so hope my vintage card qualifies
Please pop over to Bah! Humbug! and see what Ann and Irene have created. Everyone is welcome to join in our fun challenges, regardless of ability and it's always exciting to see what your creative juices can produce with a little encouragement.

Invitations

I received a call the other day asking if I would make some invitations for a 90th birthday celebration.  The only brief I had to follow was to "keep it simple and incorporate green". 
Hope this fits the bill ...
The perched birds silhouette image is a freebie from My Graphico so after creating a green background paper in PSP (Paint Shop Pro), adding the image and printing it onto smooth A4 paper, all that was left to do was some matting onto black card and add a band of cream ribbon to match the cream base card - simples!  

The text inside was also done in PSP, although it would've been just as easy to do it in Word and then print onto the background paper - which you'll see shows a larger, faded version of the silhouette birds.  I have blurred the personal details for privacy but you get the gist.

After using the free image, the least I could do was enter My Graphico's most recent challenge - #40 Vintage - as I think the background paper has a sort of vintagey look about it, but even if it's not suitable, it's always nice to show how you have used a company's products, (especially if they're free), don't you think?
I stumbled upon a couple more challenge blogs whose current theme is GREEN so I'm sneaking in there too. 
The Pixie Cottage Challenge Blog
For Fun Challenges

Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day here in the UK and I hope all those mums out there are being thoroughly pampered and spoiled.

These cards were both made using beautiful Anna Griffin floral papers and I have to say, I can't decide on a personal favourite but I'm sure both my mum and my mum-in-law will like whichever one they receive along with their flowers later today.

Happy Mother's Day to all ... wherever you are and whatever you are doing. 

I'd just like to send extra special hugs to those who are unable to share this special day with their own mother for whatever reason - no doubt she will be in your hearts and thoughts xxx.
Thought I'd enter a few challenges as I don't often get the chance these days.
Saturday Challenge - Anything Goes 
Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog - Mother's Day
PaperPlay Challenges - Seeing Double
Creative Card Crew - Celebrations

Bah! Humbug Challenge 9 - Cool Combo

Last week's challenge at Bah! Humbug! produced another amazing selection of cards and we were treated to some superb variations of stitching and 'faux stitching' as we browsed the entries.  The winner of those cute Hero Arts Clear Stamps has been announced today along with the theme for our new challenge this week so don't forget to check and see if it's you.
We decided to 'up the ante' this week and Challenge 9 asks you to create a Christmas card or project which combines 3 or more of our previous challenges. 
Ooooooooooooooh - aren't we just too wicked?
I managed to incorporate all of our previous challenges ... whoo hoo! ... so am feeling pretty clever and have awarded myself a virtual gold star. 

Here's my wee checklist ...

• recycling - Christmas Shop image
               - Glitter greeting
               - Snowman
• new stash - Mistletoe c/bug folder on gold mirri
                 - Daisy and Dandelion background paper
• glitter - everywhere!
• baubles - on the Christmas Trees
• holly - door wreath
• snowman - cut from a different recycled card
• trees - one inside the shop and one outside
• stitching - white gel pen stitches
  
  Can't wait to see what you all come up with this week!  I just KNOW you're going to rise to our challenge admirably.

YorkFest

At last!
I've finally got around to uploading the photos taken on my recent visit to York, where I spent a week with fellow Bah Humbuggers, Ann and Irene. 

We had a wonderful time together and are already eagerly anticipating our 2011 meet.
I had to 'steal' the photo of us together from Ann as none of mine were useable.

Pictured from left to right : Irene, Ann and moi

We were eating at a local Italian restaurant called Bella Italia and, judging from the look of horror on his face, I think I scared the waiter when I asked if there were any 'Italian Stallions' on the menu LOL!  Whoops!

After fabulously delicious main courses, the girls decided to order a sweet called The Godfather after recommendations from Ann's daughter. 
I didn't indulge in the chocolate frenzy but enjoyed seeing it go from this ....

... to this in about 3 minutes ... 

AND they didn't spill a drop!!
From there we hit a busy bar called Evil Eye, where they serve the most amazing and outrageous sounding cocktails I've ever seen.

We kind've bottled out and stuck with safe ones but there were some on the list that would definitely give you brain damage at the very least.  Not something I need any help with, as I'm sure Ann and Irene will testify to.

The weather was pretty fair considering the time of year, which meant we had plenty of opportunity to toddle around the shops and spend money...

... some of us found it harder to restrain the impulse to buy more than others - but I'm not telling you who was worst LOL!  

We managed to consume a fair amount of this ... during our stay and I think the local Sainsbury's probably had record sales that week.  Aren't we naughty?
You will be pleased to hear though that our creativity did get an airing too and here is a wee parade of our cards.

 And we also did the tour of this amazing piece of architecture - it is absolutely magnificent and if you ever visit York it is a definite 'Must-See'.

So there you have it ... a condensed look into our YorkFest jollies.
Bet you wish you could've been there.

Bah! Humbug! Challenge #8

It's Friday and that means it's Bah! Humbug! Challenge time ... Whoo Hoo!
As it's the first challenge of a new month, there is also a wee prize up for grabs to one lucky random entry, so it's worth joining in 'cos it may be you.

The theme this week is ...

STITCHING/FAUX STITCHING

... so it's time to show off your needlework skills OR if you prefer, you can pretend - like I did by using a combination of stamps and a black fineliner.

The papers are from my stash and I can't remember where they came from, but have a feeling they are from a pack by English Paper Company.

I thought these sweet gingerbread people were just too cute to keep hidden and the printed text with stitching paper I used, meant most of the work was already done. 
The zigzag effect across the bottom panel was a clear stamp from a QVC kit and, as you see, I went a little wonky but it would've been much worse with a real sewing machine.  Believe me!
My fellow 'Humbuggers' Irene and Ann have put much more effort into their examples so please take a look and if you'd like to join in with our challenge, you might be our lucky random winner.  Good Luck xx

Edited To Add
**Off to Glasgow with Naomi for a bowling tournament - see you when we get home**

March Already!

"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!"

... screeched in my best Victor Meldrew voice!
Despite my incredulous disbelief I've been assured that  
'Yes'... it is March already and 
'No' ...we can't press pause to wait for me to catch up. 
It must've been that week in York with Ann and Irene that confused me.  Thanks ladies - it was an absolute hoot!  Must upload those photos.
Anyway ... back to March ...

I'm never first in the queue for information and you've all probably known this for years, but I've only just discovered that March is celebrated as National Craft Month across the pond.  
I think it would be a fantastic idea if we UK crafters show our support and help them celebrate.  
As if we need an excuse ... hahahahaha!
So basically - this means that whenever you get an inkling to play, whatever your 'crafty poison' happens to be, you have permission ... NAY ... a DUTY to indulge in that creativity (or even try something completely different),  as much as you like, for the whole month of March!  How cool is that? 
Sounds great in theory doesn't it?
Anyway ... just thought I'd let you know.

Before I shoot off, I'd like to show you the ballerina birthday card which I made for my niece.

She celebrated her 13th Birthday on the day I left for York so I was unable to show it earlier.
I started with an 8" x 8" square cream card and with the help of a beautiful ballerina topper, (which I tittivated with glitter glue), foiled cardstock from a Kanban kit and some gorgeous glitter card, managed to put this together for her. 
Her mum says she absolutely loved it ... and knowing that is one of the reasons why I love dabbling in papercraft so much. 
Appreciation really is priceless.  Thank you xxx.

Now where's that camera with those York snaps?