Hearts and Flowers

The Rosie-Dee challenge blog has the theme of Occasions this month and this week's celebration is "Weddings", so I've gone all mushy and made this frothy over-the-top number!


This started life in my head as an all-white layering exercise, but in the way these things do it changed slightly in the making.
I've layered up diffeent sizes of Labels 1 (Nestabilities), and used the Cuttlebug Tiny Hearts embossing folder for the top one, and for the large square/
The hearts (Cuttlebug) are three layers of white card, plus two of the decorative upper layer, which I've adhered in an off-set way to get more twiddly bits! Inked with a couple of the darker pink shades from a Cats Eye Queue
The scrolls are Spellbinders - three layers of card for each, then inked with silver.
Gorgeous cotton lace from Charmed Cards and Crafts
Tiny pink and silver gems from the Anita's Gem Wheel and Ribbon from Ribbon Oasis as usual!


This next card is one I made to submit for Rosie-Dee a few weeks ago and just didn't got round to posting or linking

It was for the Turquoise and Chocolate colour themed challenge/ I thought I might as well add it here since I'ver rediscovered it.
The papers are Dream Street "Rue"
Flowers; various Primas
Tag: Bosskutz mini tags die
Ribbon; Ribbon Oasis

Have an Ice Day

The new set of Templates from Crafty Templates is now available, and there are some really cute designs.L eo's based this collection around an idea for a half-card, where the front of the card is cut in half and the template part stands proud.

Each month Leo puts together a fab Goodies Kit to go with the template sets, but this time I opted to go with my own stash - let's face it, I could do with making a dent in the stash-mountain.

The papers for my first card didn't take much deciding on (can you tell why?) and I've gone with the basic Half-Card idea for this one.


I reversed the template and cut it again so that I could use it on the inside of the card too


All papers MME "Breaking Free".
Sprinkles ribbon from Ribbon Oasis
2mm gems from Anita's Gem Wheel
brads from stash

Cupcakes are appearing everywhere at the moment and Leo has featured a few fab cupcake templates over the last year or so - here's another from this month's set.

During the week the new BG "Lemonade" 6x6 pad arrived from Charmed Cards& Crafts (there may have been other goodies in the box too) so it was just screaming to be used with this template.
I cut the "topping" for the cake from pink felt - I was going to sew beads onto it for the sprinkles - but my beading needle refused to be threaded and my patience was running low so I put that aside and went with lots of tiny pink Primas. Do you remember those tiny sugar flower cake decorations? Can you still buy them?
Papers BG Lemonade
Ribbon and RicRac from stash
Letter Rub-ons coated with Stickles

I've saved my favourite card for next time, so please come back soon to have a look at that one!

Last for today, a sneak peek from my card for tonight's Rosie-Dee challenge blog
Hope you enjoyed your visit, please come back soon :)

Hello Dolly

For the last few years Irina, from Chernobyl, Russia has been coming to stay for a few weeks with Rein's family in Germany. In her honour, Rein's challenge to The Daring Cardmakers this week is to make cards with a Russian theme, or design element inspired by things Russian.

The team have been doing much Googling, I can tell you!

At first I thought of making a Nesting Dolls card which would all fold concertina style with dolls and "pages" of decreasing size. Then I thought I could be really brave and get the inks out and have a go at making some sort of tryptych affair. I quickly rejected this one as asking for trouble! Of the messy disaster kind!

Back to Googling.
I found a clip art of some lovely Babushka dolls and thought they'd be fairly easy to make into Robo Templates, and I decided on a 3 rows of 3 dolls design


It was a good job I actually cut several extra bits because as you can see there are more than 9 dolls on my card. Rows of three looked silly so I filled the whole card up instead. The dolls are tiny, only 4cms high so some of the bits are quite small. The base layer is the same for all the dolls, but I then made two designs for the "clothes", which I could then alter slightly later with scissors to add to the number of designs.
I used about four double-sided papers and cut several of each element from each paper - which gave me the choice of using either side of each to make the dolls. That was the easy bit!

I knew that the hardest bit would be the faces, so I decided to cut down the amount of drawing I had to do by making lots of different hairstyles to cut on the Robo - now if my dolls were only 4cm high you can imagine how tiny the hair bits were! But still much easier than drawing in the hair!
I can't draw for toffee but the faces are tiny so as long as you don't look too closely its ok - I still feel though that most of my faces look like little boys faces instead of little girl ones. Hey ho, nothing I can do about that! lol lol
I must admit, I rather like a dare which sets me a real challenge (occasionally - not every time - just in case any of the rest of the team are reading this - don't want to give them ideas that might make my life too difficult hehehe), and this one did just that. But, you know, I'm really really pleased at how this turned out and although a bit fiddly I really enjoyed making this card.

So, if you fancy a real challenge take a look at Rein's fab dare and see if you can give your cards a bit of Russian flair this week. You can see the rest of the DT's cards HERE. Looking forward to seeing what the Darers come up with over the next week.

Back tomorrow with the first of my DT cards for the latest set of Crafty Templates, so please come back soon

Is it an Album?....

....is it a mini book?......is it a Photo Frame?

Well I think it's all of those tied up in one compact little bundle. Or rather, it will be when its all finished. Its my turn to add something to Bubbly Scrumptious, the emag for the Bubbly Funk shop, and today is the start of a 2 part project. This one is a mini album which folds up neatly to carry in your bag, but can also serve as a free-standing photo display thingummy (tech term) This week I've made the basic book and the front cover, next time it'll be making the back cover, assembling the book and adding the inside pretties. This one's earmarked for MIL, with both her birthday and "that other thing" in December its always a bit of a stressy "agggghhhh what on earth can we get for your mum?" sort of time. You can find the project and more pictures HERE and all the July Kit components are in the SHOP - and Caroline's just announced that her Summer Sale has begun...... Now I need to get off here and get busy with my DCM card for tomorrow - The lovely Rein has set a real humdinger of a dare this week so watch out folks! Back tomorrow if I manage to get my card done in time, that is!

Vote for Jo

Another shout-out for a DCM Teamie!
Our wonderful, talented and all round fabby person Jo Kill has made it to the final 20 of Paper Craft's Gallery Idol

Please please pop along and vote for her fabulous wedding card HERE

You do need to register first, but it only takes a minute and I think after that you can place a vote each day.

Let's hear it for Our Jo!

99 Things

My lovely friend and co-DCMer Sue is celebrating her 2nd Blogaversary with an enormous stack of blog candy. To be in her lucky dip you need to tell her which of these 99 things you've done. I couldn't resist having a go so here are mine. My "done that" things are in bold

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world/Disneyland Paris
8. Climbed a mountain (well, only Mt Snowdon - but I've done that twice)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea (I saw one from the beach in the Maldives - hope that counts!)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child (we sponsor a child through World Vision, I wonder if that counts?)
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Made a Snow Angel
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice (nah, OH was too mean, had to make do with water taxis!)
27. Run a Marathon
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Stood in the rim of the Grand Canyon
32. Been on a cruise (Gulet cruises in Turkey)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an erupting volcano in person.
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa (Morocco)
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted (a pencil drawing when I was about 3)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkelling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theatre
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Cookies for charity
62. Gone whale watching
63. Been given flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favourite childhood toy
70. Visited Buckingham Palace
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt or blanket
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Been to the top of the Empier State Building
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

One or two in there I wouldn't mind ticking off some day, but a lot that I'm fairly content not to have done. Shame about Hawaii being mentioned by name - I've been to Fiji and the Cook Islands in the South Pacific but they just had to go and say Hawaii didn't they? lol

Check out Sue's lovely blog to see her own "done thats" and of course to see what her wonderful blog candy consists of.

Party Time

Just finished a commissioned wedding card - well actually I sort of finished it at the weekend but then decided it could do with a bit of "something extra".
The turquoise flower didn't really stand out as well as I'd planned, so I made a new flower template for Mr Robo to cut - I used some PSP preset heart shapes as the basis for the flower then used the paintbrush tool to give them a more random shape. I cut it out using the dark pink paper just big enough to add some background colour to the original Prima flower. I cut a smaller version to add interest to the right side of the message piece too.

I've used MME Bella Bella papers for this, my trusty Fiskars border punch for the lacy edge, little chipboard birdies and hearts are from Bubbly Funk. The large words are Robo cut and the small tag was pc generated.

As a reward to myself for finishing my orders and getting them parcelled up and ready for the post, I allowed myself a little "playtime"
This is one of the cards I made this morning

The cupcake and candles are more of my own templates for the Craft Robo. It's amazing what you can do with a couple of PSP pre-set shapes and then a bit of manipulation with the paintbrush tool!
I've been meaning to use this template to make a card for the June challenge on the Bubbly Funk blog. There's a fabulous Blog Candy prize up for grabs, and although the July challenge is now up and running I'm not too late getting my card into the draw because the prize covers both June and July's challenges. phew!
Just as well though, as the July one really has me stumped!


I'm sorry, but I must just have a moan at this point!
Is it just me who finds Rub-ons should be re-named Rub-bish?
I really should stop buying them, but I keep thinking the next set will be better. I've found very few makes that I can actually get on with and its just so disappointing when you've put time and effort into making something which is then messed up by rub-ons that don't work properly. It's not just the cheaper ones that are failures either. I used Scenic Route ones on this card and still got into a pickle. Mind you, at least these letters were big enough to hide the manky bits with some good old Stickles - which I think ended up looking better than the plain black letters would have done anyway. nah nah ne nah nah

Maybe we should all boycott Rub-ons until the manufacturers get their testing done properly - I'm sick of bits going missing, and other bits ending up on parts of the cards they weren't of some others! One Maya Road sheet I have - and I do like these ones, they work really well - but the sheet has 11 letter "i" and only 2 letter "y"s. That means I can write just ONE "Happy Birthday" message from this sheet.

They should be a fab, easy and quick way to make your messages, but usually you have to somehow disguise the bits that went wrong, so everything takes longer in the end! grrrr

I will now get off my soapbox, and I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that!

Papers are the gorgeous MME Breaking Free collection and yes, I know I'm in a bit of an MME rut, but why not when they are as fab as this? lol lol
Right, back to work
Thanks for visiting

A Guest Spot!

Rosie asked if I'd like to do a Guest Designer spot on the Rosie-Dee challenge blog during the month of July.
As this lovely blog sets challenges that you can then use for any craft you fancy it'll be a fun way to do some of the things I don't make so often - maybe give myself an extra challenge to try tags/twinchies/ATCs etc - no promises, mind!

Actually the first challenge for the month of July is a sketch - so what do yout think I've made? Yep, you got it - I made a card!

Here's the sketch for this week's challenge


This is the card I made, I decided to use the diamonf shape as an aperture and put the focus item pn the inside of the car, peeking through the aperture. To get the double-frame effect of the sketch, I cut the aperture in the card, and them again in the paper which I then peeled back and
distressed a little.

All the papers are from MME's Pretty Please collection, some ribbon from Ribbon Oasis and some tiny gems from one of the Anita's Gem Wheels

The new Rosie-Dee Design Team have their very first outing this week, so if you've not visited the blog before, now's a really good time to check it out!

Blue......and Green

It's Vanessa's turn to set the challenge for The Daring Cardmakers this week and she's chosen a colour combination theme for her dare.

I remember my Grandma saying "Blue and Green should never be seen" when I was a little girl - I never did understand why that should be because after all the grass is green and the sky is blue (sometimes) and they seem to be happy together, don't they. Or maybe not; because all the hot sunshine we've been having lately has turned the grass in our garden quite brown already!

Anyway, I like blue and green together, they always seem a calm, cooland restful colour combination to me.
Initially I thought I'd look for pale shades of the two colours as a starting point, but then I remembered on of my old Basic Grey paper pads (hang on while I go and check which it is...), "Boxer" - I do like the way the colours and designs go together in this set - lovely for men's cards - so that's what I ended up making.
Nothing complicated for this one, but some fave techniques and elements did find their way in.
I made the mosaic tiles by sticking various of the papers onto card then cutting 2.5 cms squares and using the Zutter Round it All to soften the corners.
For a change I joined the edges of the little tiles to make the design instead of leaving gaps between them.
The faux brads are scraps of paper glued to chipboard - I use whichever Cuttlebug die has the right size circle for the project - in this case it's one of those from the flowers die set. To finish the "brads" I put a blob of Glossy Acents on the top. Perfectly matching brads for all your projects lol!
For the lettering I used Mr Robo. For the word "birthday" I wanted the letters to sit on rounded rectangles so I first loaded each letter individually into a Robo page, then "drew a rounded rectangle around the tallest of the letters to check I'd made it tall enough, then moved it over the widest letter to make sure it was wide enough too. Then its an easy job to copy and paste as many as required.
The actual letters were then cut twice, once in card and the second time in the the patterned paper which this time came from the BG "Periphery" paper pad.

I used Hobo font for both the individual letters and also for the "Wishes" which I expanded the letter size then welded together first in Paint Shop Pro.

We'd love you to join inwith our Blue and Green dare - if you need some inspiration por maybe some convincing as to how great the two colours can look together, pop over to the The Daring Cardmakers Blog to see what the girls have been making this week - and to meet Gail, who is our fab Guest Designer for July.

Thank you to everyone who joined in last week's Post Pals challenge - I've not had a chance to get around and see all the cards because I've been really busy since getting back from our IOM trip - but that's on my "to do" list for the weekend. Just thought it was worth mentioning that the PostPals scheme is always there so just because the DCM challenge is over, doesn't mean that you can't send cards to those poorly kiddies any more.....

Right.
Still need to finish that Wedding card...
And I have something else I need to make by end of play today too.
And its still HOT - very humid today too
Thanks for visiting

Very Verbena

Just before we left for "Out-law Visiting" on the Isle of Man, my DT version of the July Bubbly Funk kit arrived. This one is based around the K&Co Verbena collection and is filled with papers, card, lace, ribbon, flowers, mini photos and all sorts of other interesting and inspiring "stuff". Its now on sale in the Bubbly Funk SHOP and there are various options you can choose from or mix and match.

My first project using the new kit is something really quick and easy - handy for a mini gift, to give now, or maybe stash away for little "sticking fillers" when the C word time comes along.
The mini jotter that formed the starting point for this came from Wilkinson's and at the princely sum of 9 pence is a bargain!

Having made that one, I then spotted the remains of my June kit so made another one using leftover paper and card plus some bits from my own stash.
I think I'll be heading back to the local Wilko's and stocking up on more of these notebooks - they'll be great to pop into envelopes along with Birthday cards etc, just as a tiny surprise gift.
You can visit the Bubbly Scrumptious blog HERE to see how I went about decorating

Now, I really really must get the wedding card I've been struggling with done and ready to send off to my customer. So far there are two failed attempts at making this one - keep your fingers crossed that its third time lucky, will you, please?
Have a great day

Dan's Birthday

Wow, its a bit on the warm side here in the UK - looks like summer might have arrived with a vengeance - we've even had to get the fan out of the loft, I'm just hoping we've not jinxed the sunshine by doing that!

We've just got home from a weekend on the Isle of Man (In-Law visiting) in time to drive over to my Bro's house and wish nephew Dan a Happy Birthday. Actually we had to buy his present too before we went - and though I'd made his card last week I didn't have time to do a photo before we left - another little job for yesterday afternoon.

Quite incredibly, it didn't rain the whole time we were on the IOM - I've been visiting for the last 15 years or so, and I think that's the first time we've stayed dry! It was even warm and sunny most of the time, though cloudy and hazy at times too. No doubt there'll be a few photos to bore you with soon......

I made another of those fab pop-up cards for Dan - tbh I was a bit stumped as to what to do and didn't really have a lot of time to think of something new. Never mind, he liked it and I noticed my bro having a quiet little look at how it works - he's not one to show much enthusiasm for my cards, he works for a Greeting Cards manufacturer and I think he regards handmade cards as cheating him out of custom lol lol Tough, I say!

Here's the card
I used:
Cosmo Cricket "Get Happy" paper pad
Bazzill card in matching colours
Craft Robo to cut all letters and numbers
Sizzix Trophy Die
thin red wire to make the springs

Now I really should stop procrastinating and make some new stuff!

Thanks for visiting
Your visits and comments are always valued