Birthday cards and Candy Winner

It's sad, but there comes a time when you can't leave your birthday cards on show in the lounge any longer. The good thing about taking them down is that I get to go through my lovely handmade cards, take photos and just enjoy looking again closely at all the work that went into making them.
So here, in all their glory are the wonderful handmade cards I received - Thank you so much to all my lovely friends who took the time to make and send a card, I really enjoyed opening all those envelopes and I loved every one of these works of art.
Got to make a special mention for this one, made by my little cousin Sam, who's only 2 years old - I think he's done a fine job, don't you?
Oh, and yes! I've done the draw for my Birthday Blog Candy too - thanks again to everyone who left a message to say they'd made a card for my DCM "The same, But Different" dare the other week

the winner is........
JULIET

drop me a note at the address in the sidebar with you postal info Juliet - it might take me a few days to get your prize ready, but it will get done, I promise!

Crowning Glory

Friday, is Daring Cardmakers Day and this time it's the famous and fabby Jo Kill's turn to set the dare for the Design Team and for all the wonderful darers.

Jo here this week....
My Majestic theme is quite a simple one.... I would like you to incorporate a Crown (or Tiara) somewhere upon your card! Have fun and I can't wait to see what you create :)

I've made a few crown/tiara cards for various reasons lately so I wanted to think up somethiong different for Jo's dare.

So, I'd been mulling this one over for nearly the whole week when suddenly, yesterday morning I had one of those "lightbulb" moments - I'll leave you to guess where I was at the time....
I remembered the little coin holders that came in an ancient kit froms the now defunct Self-Addressed. Took a while to locate them, but that's nothing new! I popped the penny inside the holder and made a cover using my Craft Robo to cut the perfect sized circle. I've been looking for a chance to use these newly acquired papers by Fancy Pants - they're from the Aged Florals collection and are rather delicious. RicRac and ribbon are from Ribbon Oasis, the brads from my stash, I printed out the rhyme on the pc. I still feel there's something missing - maybe I should have added a strip of another of the papers aross the middle before adding the coin holder...... yep, I think that might be it. Too late now.

Please pop along to the DCM blog and see what other cards the Girls have come up with - there are some fab ideas for using crowns and tiaras - definitely more than I'd ever manage to come uup with! We're really looking forward to seeing what all the fabby Darers come up with for this one so put your thinking crowns on (thinking CAPS are soooooo last year)

Anyway, I've shown these other crown cards before, but hey, Jo's dare is a good excuse to pad out the blog with them again, eh?

Days disappearing

Ok, so where are all the days disappearing too? Can't believe it's already Thursday, that can't be right, surely? Someone must have sneaked in and stolen some days away from me.

Busy being busy finishing off projects for the October Bubbly Funk Kit - and I'll let you into a little secret here - this one is a bit out of the ordinary. And that's all I'm going to say.
For now.

I got my uncle's birthday card made on time, and in the post on time. But did it arrive on time? It did not. So I'm not best-pleased with the Royal Mail, just hope it arrives today.

Anyway, here's the card
The papers are from the Basic Grey Periphery paper pad. I cut the letters on the Robo, cutting them a couple of times in card and then again in the paper and sticking them together to give a chipboard effect
Going back to the Bubbly Funk Cyber Crop at the weekend, the second of my classes was all about trees. This first card was made using the new Cuttlebug Cut & Emboss Christmas Tree set which is lovely.

But my class was about making our own tall skinny Christmas trees - and lots of them, using really basic stuff; just paper, card, onks and a bit of glitter glue to bling things up a bit.
This is my cheaop, quicko version of the first one:

And using more of the trees I'd already cut I made these

Here are a couple more "Thank You" cards (and no, I've not forgotten the blog candy....)
Lastly for now - if you've not seen the latest "Little Extra" over on the DCM blog - then do go and see what Lythan challenged herself to do this week. I think it was quite brave of her but she's pulled it off brilliantly and made a fabulous set of cards. Me, I'd have got diverted after...oooh....one card!
Well done Lythan, you're a star!

Monday Mutterings

Still trying to catch up after our little holiday - I promise I'll sort out the draw for my Birthday Blog Candy in the next couple of days - it's all a bit hectic at them moment, and I'm struggling to catch up with everrything.

I didn't even have time to do the latest DCM challenge, or even to pop around to see what everyone else has been doing for it - but I will, because I love to visit all the blogs and see what the darers are making,

This last weekend saw the Bubbly Funk cybercrop - a whole weekend filled with classes, all produced by forum menbers and featuring some fantastic projects. There was a sewing project, a knitting one, a stamped tag, bags and boxes to make, ways to use transparencies, various little books and all sorts of other things.
I did a couple of Christmas Card classes - this was a great excuse to make myself get started on mine. Now my birthday's over my last excuse - "I don't start making Christmas cards till after my birthday" - has been lost, so into the cupboard I went to unearth the box of Christmas stuff.

Here are some of the cards I made for my first class
I had some fab pressies for my birthday, so I've also been trying to get my "Thanks yous" done - some of them look like this:
Now I need to get on and make a couple more Thank You cards and also a birthday card for my uncle - and I haven't got a clue what to do for that - his birthday is on Wednesday so I hope inspiration strikes soon! I'll let you know.....

Monkeying Around!

I'm back from a fantastic Birthday "holiday" down on the Somerset/Devon/Dorset borders. Amazingly, we even had some sunny weather, and on the days that weren't so sunny it still stayed dry - which was no mean feat for England this summer!

I'm supposed to be getting started on my crafty tasks list as well as doing all the washing, ironing, clearing away chores that a even just a few days away seem to make lots of!

I came home to a doormat piled high with lots of nice post (not just bills and junk mail yippee!) - lots of birthday cards, many of them beautiful handmade ones from my lovely crafty friends - thank you soooo much - I promise to do photos and show them all soon - but for now they're "decorating" our lounge and reminding me just how lucky I am to know so many talented people.

I spent my actual birthday visiting Monkey World - somewhere I've wanted to visit for years - ever since I first saw it on tv and heard about the wonderful work they do rescuing maltreated primates from horrible environments and cruel people all over the world.
Monkey World is fantastic and I love that everything there is geared towards making life better for the animals rather than making it good for entertaining humans. Just in case you're reading this and haven't a clue what I'm talking about you can read more HERE

I'll get some photos of our trip ready to show soon, and hopefully I'll even manage to make some new stuff too. If you've not made a card for this week's DCM challenge yet, please have a go - all the info is on the DCM blog - and I'm offering blog candy if you join in and also leave a message on my blog - it's a sort of happy birthday to me - but with me giving the present to one lucky winner!! hehe

One Monkey World photo for now - just because he's tooooo cute not to show!
Everybody say ahhhhhhhhhhhh

More CJ entries and more you-know-whats

I was going to show these pages for a cj pages a couple of weeks back but forgot

This was a really fun and different CJ to have land on the doormat - I think it's going to look wonderful when it's all done - and I wish it was going to be mine!
Papers I've used are Crate's Blue Hill collection - they were part of a recent kit from the now defunct) Self Addressed. Must remember to buy a full set of these papers, they are fabby!

And a couple more naughty little sneak peeks....
.I wonder what this could be all about....hmmmmm?

Man Card, BIA Book & a Sneakie peekie!

First of all, don't forget my Birthday Blog Candy - if you make a card for this week's DCM (see Friday's post), which just happens to be my latest dare, and leave a message here on my blog as well as on the DCM blog, then your name will go into a draw for a little prize - not a clue what it will be, but there'll be something......

I made this card for my Aunt to give to my uncle on his birthday.

September is a very busy birthday time around the Waffle Zone! Loads of family and friends celebrate their birthdays around now, thank goodness the DVM and the various design teams mean I'm usually on top of them as far as having cards made nowadays!
I made this notebook for a present - the paper is Crate and the spotty stuff is a deliciously tactile velvet paper. Ribbons are all from the wonderful Ribbon Oasis.


And last for this time a sneak peek......

Circle Journal Comes Home

After flying back and forth across the Irish channel a few times, my "Funky Flowers" circle journal arrived home to stay.

Huge thanks to Angie, Isobel, Hazel and Nicky for making this teeny weeny book a real joy to look at. You're all wonderful - and I really enjoyed making my pages for your little books too.

Covers
Angie's pages
Isobel's pages
Hazel's pagesNicky's pages
My pages
The book standing upThanks again girls - this was such a fun CJ to be part of

The Same, But Different

One of the things I love about our dares on The Daring Cardmakers is that although we all start with the same brief, the cards we produce are all so different, so when my turn came around again to set this week's dare I thought I'd see what happened if it was a quotation that was the same starting point for all of us:

Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.

Henry Van Dyke

I've chosen this quotation because I think we sometimes need reminding that everyone is special in their own way, and everyone, without exception has a talent to bring to the world - we should all value our own talents and those of other people more than we do.

So I 'd like you to use this quotation somewhere on your card It doesn't have to be on the front, or even need to be immediately visible. You could perhaps print it on vellum, add it on a tag, put it inside the card, or chop it up and use all the words "ransom note" style.

I have a feeling this might be a tricky one - but don't give up without having a try - use your fabulous, creative skills and make a card to show off your cardmaking talents, then leave a message on the DCM blog so we can all give due praise!

This is my card:

I've used sa beautiful paper collection by Fancy Pants called "Sweet Spring". I love the soft, muted colours of these papers, they are fab to work with. The two chipboard birdies and the scrolls at the top are from Bubbly Funk, and the little one on the tag is actually copied from the one on the paper below - I needed it to sit a bit proud of the tag so had to make my own version. The fibres are from my stash.

Please join in with my dare - it's my birthday this week, so to celebrate if you make a card for this dare, and leave a message here as well as on the DCM blog I'll put your name in a hat and sort out some Blog Candy for one lucky winner!

Remember - you must leave a message here as well as on the Daring Cardmakers blog.

Now that's a Crafty Template Too

Here are another couple of cards made using the fab new set from Crafty Templates. As I mentioned last time, the templates are a bit different this month - they are called "Embellish Buddies!" and come in the form of images that you can resize, print, cut and colour in whatever way takes your fancy. There are loads of images in the set and you're sure tho find loads of uses for them.

I wanted to see if I could use them with my Craft Robo, so using PSP I converted them and divided the various sections up so that I could cut the bits out using different paper and card, then stick them all together again like a jigsaw!
These little Lovebirds are so sweet! I used some of the papers from the Goodies Kit you can buy as an extra to the Templates set.
If you read my last message you'll know that I'd lost my Goodies kit - I'm very, very embarrassed to say where I found it but I know you won't laugh so I'll tell you that it was on the corner of my desk all the time.... oooops!
Anyway, I thought Mr Bird looked as if he was trying really hard to woo Ms Bird and I thought a little bunch of flowers might help.
Birdies are Leo's wonderful templates, cut on the Robo, as is the big blue ooval. I hand cut the cloud and the branches and used paper from the goodies kit to cover one of the chipboard hearts in the kit and then .my tiny heart punch to cut some extra little hearts.

For this second card I still used the Robo, but this time I cut the Blossom Crafdty template in 4 decreasing sizes. One of the fab things about the Craft Robo is that you can cut any shape to any size, making things like this a piece of cake.The 4 Blossom shapes were curled, then raised on foam tape. The gorgeous hearts paper is in the the Goodies Kit and I used ribbon also from the Kit slotted through cuts in the base card to make the borders. It still looked a bit bare (still suffering from that "White Space" problem....) so I used the tiny heart punch to add some...tiny hearts!

Not a subscriber yet? Want to find out more about the fab range of crafty ideas available from Crafty Templates? Just click HERE for the Crafty Templates Shop
Loads more info, tips and ideas on the Crafty Templates Blog too

Now that's a Crafty Template!

Well, quite a few BRAND NEW Crafty Templates actually!
The new set of templates from the super-talented Leo at Crafty Templates are out around now and I've been having lots of fun playing with them. They are a bit different this time; Leo has made lots of different picture type templates (rather than shaped cards) that you can print off and use in many different ways. You'll be able to print them to the size you want, and colour them in, or use them in the more usual way CT way by cutting out all the bits and pieces to form the whole picture. You can mix and match them too and use several on one card if that's what you fancy.

I thought I'd have a go at converting some to cut with my Craft Robo and I've got a couple to share today. If you've already checked out the goodies in the Crafty Templates you'll spot that for these two cards I'm not using stash from the lovely Crafty Templates Goodies Kit. That's because it disappeared. I knew it had arrived and I have a box for all those kits/CJs and other "things that need doing" to go in that lives at the side of my desk. They go in there so that when it's time to deal with them I know where they are. hmmmm so why no CT Goodie Kit in there then? After a lot of hunting around I had to confess to Leo that I'd lost it and bless her, she said it was fine to use my own stash

So here are the first couple of cards I made with these funky new templates, if not the fabby goodie kit....
My first card uses Crate Paper's Blue Hill paper collection.
I've used two of the new template set for this one, the "Quirky Frame" and the "Funky Flowers"

I made a bit of a muck up of converting the frame for the Robo - it's a while since I'd done something like this and I'd forgotton what to do, so it's not a perfect version of Leo's template - I must remember to go back and put the Robo template right.

I thought all this funky quirkiness needed a more wonky background, hence the wierd shapes - I meant them to look like this - honestly! hehe
Still not sure whether this card needs a little greetings tag or something to the left of the frame just to finish it off.


I think those flowers would make quite a cool Rennie Mackintosh inspired card so I might just have a go at something like that one of these days.The buttons are fixed on with narrow ribbons via holes in the base card, then I added a bit of Stickles glitter glue in colours to match those in the papers - but the glitteriness doesn't show up too well in the photo, sorry
.I love this little "Quirky Gifts" template - I just know they are going to come in soooo useful. To make this card a bit more interesting I made the parcels template big enough to almost fill the card, then cut a diagonal piece off my base card so that the parcels would stand out well. I've used papers from Cosmo Cricket's Honey Pie paper pad and I think they work really well with this template.
More tomorrow

Introducing.....Shabby Saturday on a Friday

It may be Friday but over on The Daring Cardmakers, we've been playing with Shabby Saturday all week!
Anice, of Funky Hand designs has very kindly sponsored this week's dare and sent us all her fantastic collection of downloadable papers and images, called "Shabby Saturday" to play with.
Well, I for one haven't dabbled in this downloadable papers lark so it was a step into the new and unkown for me. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to download and to print - and how fab the designs were.

I think the way to get really good results is to start off with really good quality printer paper, and to adjust your printer settings for quality rather than speed. I had to call in the Resident Computer Expert to help so that I could be sure we'd get the most of the designs - he's the one who knows how to tweak the printer settings, I'm not a techie whizzy computer savvy sort!
We've had this template to work with so that all the DCMers can still join in using their own papers - but it's definitely worth a look at the Funky Hand site and trying some of Anice's fabby designs out for yourself. BTW you might have seen her on TV as she shows her CDs and downloads in "Create & Craft" from time to time....

I've made a couple of cards, and I'm really impressed with the designs and the ease of use

Apart from the lovely papers, for this first one I also used some cereal packet chipboard (for the curved edge rectangle) and the 2 bigger flowers were stuck onto thin card so that I could then curl them over my pointy-poley tool's handle to get some movement it the petals. The smaller flower was cut from the flowery paper in the collection and mounted in the same way.

To keep the flower in shapeI add some small pieces of foam tape on the back of each of the petals - about half way along, then I use glue in the centre of the first et of petals and stick down. I repeat this with the second flower. The smaller flower just has a piece of foam tape in the middle. I'll try and do an example another time with some step by step pictures if anyone is interested.

The only other thing added to this card was the brown brad which holds the fake ribbons to the little tag. I made the other two brads from paper stuck on chipboard and cut using the Cuttlebug
My 2nd card has the addition of a little ribbon tab, otherwise all papers from the same Shabby Saturday" collection - aren't these designs gorgeous?

Would you like to get hold of "Shabby Saturday" for free?

Anice is giving away one download of the collection to the winner of our Lucky Dip this week - all you need to do to be in with a chance of winning is to make a card using the template and leave a message on the DCM blog telling us where we can see it. Once the dare closes next week we'll put all the names in our virtual hat and pick a name at random. You've got to be in it to win it, as they say.....

Please pop over to the DCM blog and see more cards made with the lush Funky Hand designs - then visit the Funky Hand website to be tempted even further!

Photos and CJs

First up I thought I'd pop a few photos on from Bank Holiday weekend, when we were out and about with our visitors. We didn't actually take many because blue skies were sadly lacking! In fact Hubby didn't even get his camera out when we were in Southwold on the Wednesday - saying something like "I've been to Southwold on nice days...." I think I took a couple of token pics just because I'd carried my camera around all day. On BH Monday we went to Denny Abbey (Cambs) - no pics as we've been there on better days too, then on to St. Ives, where the sun did appear from behind the clouds occasionally!
St Ives:
Southwold
I've been busy with CJs over the last week or so. These are my pages for a CJ all about "Home"

Papers are all by Fancy Pants, I hand cut the little house from cereal packet chipboard.
I'll save another of the CJs I've just done for next time (well, I've got to spin it out, haven't I?). Thanks for looking, please come back soon :)