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 Today I'm posting here and on "Get Funky" (the inspiration blog for Funky Hand products).  All this month we've been sharing projects made using papers from the Funky Daze CD which normally sells for the small price of £3.99, but during April you can have it for just £1.... wow!

Anyway, for my last April project I've made a really quick and simple card using designs from the "Ruby Tuesday" section of the Funky Daze CD

Materials and Tools

Papers: "Ruby Tuesday" from the Funky Hand  Funky Daze CD
the designs were all printed on textured white Bazzill card
HAPPY is one of a set of 3 "happy" dies (Memory Box)
"birthday" is printed directly onto the card from the pc
Tiny black gems
Black card

I glued the striped paper onto black card before die-cutting the letters and the accent stripes

I'm really pleased with this one as it's quick, simple and easy to "personalise" to your recipient just by changing the papers and the fonts.  I hope you like it too!  
Thanks for visiting

Suspended Circles

I've had a bit of fun with the "Ever Decreasing Circles" LO over on the Sketch File Blog  and suspended the ever decreasing circles on a thread inside a circular aperture!

Materials and Tools

14cm sq card blank

Papers; "Office Suite" 6x6 pad (Fancy Pants)

Dies; Scalloped Circle and Plain circle Nesties (Spellbinders)

Swirl (MFT)

Homemade decaf sticker sentiment

Gold thread, Tiny black gems

Flowers are cut from one of the papers (glued onto scrap card before cutting out)

This is the sketch, I rotated it and used the circle more centrally

That's all for this time, thank you for visiting

Under the Weather

It's Friday again, which means Daring Cardmakers day and this week's challenge  is called:

Under the Weather

"It seems that everyone we know is either feeling really poorly, or is just getting over some nasty bug or other.  So we thought we'd have a challenge all about "Get Well Soon" cards....and what with it still being April, the month famed for it's rain showers (though here in the UK it's been pretty much "sunshine all the way" this year) we'd like you to add a 

weather-related twist to your cards.

To put it simply, we'd like to see Weather Related Get Well Soon cards"

The elements for my card were pretty much all made using my Silhouette Cameo.  The little girl with the umbrella is one I made a few years back using a colouring page for the template.  I've used it a few times now as it's so cute and it's simple to make adjustments or add extras to - such as the jar, rainbow and sun I added this time, and the raindrops falling in the background.

I cut out all the pieces then made the 3 main parts (girl, sun, rainbow) so that I could lay them on a sheet of card and work out how much space I had to use for the sentiment.  This was created in Paint Shop Pro and resized to fit the space.  Next I set the document to print in the lower left-hand corner of a sheet of A4 card and cut it down to size.  I'd planned to print directly onto the actual card blank but decided a bit of a coloured border would look better.

Materials and Tools

Various coloured card (Bazzill, Coredinations)

Patterned papers* are "Marching On" from the "Craft the Year Away" CD 

(Funky Hand)

PC generated sentiment

Coloured pens for the colours in the jar

Own templates for cutting on Silhouette Cameo 

Inks

* I resized 3 of the designs to a very petite size to make them work for the raincoat, umbrella and boots - which is just one of the great benefits of using digital papers!

Here are another couple of cards made with that template

Anyway, that's it for this time, thank you so much for visiting - and for leaving a comment.....{{hint, hint}}!  

A Day at the Zoo

This is my project for today's post on the Get Funky Blog; all this month we're sharing things made using papers from the Funky Daze CD and just in case you don't know, this month you can grab your own copy for the amazing price of just £1.

It's been ages since a I dabbled in the wonderful world of mini books so when I saw this idea I thought I'd have a go at making one and fill it with photos we took when we had a day at Whipsnade Zoo a couple of years ago.

This is a really neat little book design, where the pages have a simple zig-zag formation and are all folded up into a wrap around cover

Materials and Tools

Papers: "Half Way" from the Funky Hand  Funky Daze CD
the designs were all printed on textured white Bazzill card
Letters cut with an X-cut alphabet die
EK Success border punch
Thin leather thong for fastening
Ink for edging

So here we go with a picture show - from the photos I think you'll be able to see how it works. I hope you like it

There's enough room in this one for 15 photos, but the clever way this book is made means you can have as many pages as you want, then just make the cover to fit around them.  Mine is quite small, only about 8x10 cms, but again, its easy to adapt for the size of photos you want to put inside.

This last photo shows how it looks when the  book is lying flat when it's all folded in and fastened up

I've finally made a start on creating the mini album which I'll use for photos of our recent Paris trip.  So far I've only made the binding piece that goes inside the spine, and the first part of the cover, which is the spine piece, so it might be a while - but here are the parts I've made so far

Thanks for popping by, hope you'll take a minute to leave a message....

Get the Point?

Well, Nat shot us a pointed challenge this week over at DCM HQ!

"My challenge to you this week is inspired by my current TV obsession: Arrow.
I would like you is to feature arrows on your card
They are a very current design trend in the crafting industry at the moment - lots of stamps, dies, papers are featuring arrows.
I would love to see whether you can interpret anything else from Arrow the TV series into your cards (like the colour green (as Oliver Queen knows, it's not easy being green), a nod to the Starling city skyline, comic book super heroes, Felicity Smoak's iconic glasses, somehow getting the word Sinceriously on your card...)
Whatever you go with, there has to be at least one arrow on your card!
There are some fab creations from the Design Team on the blog - they have not failed this dare!"

This was a tough one for me....on so many levels!  Not least because I haven't the foggiest idea what she's talking about (but there's loads more info over on our blog!), then there's the fact that green isn't a colour I feature as a main element in my crafting (don't know why)....and, to be perfectly honest, I just don't really "get" all this using arrows on cards etc , most of the time they don't seem to mean or indicate anything, and to me the whole point (haha) of an arrow is to give some sort of direction or meaning!
Well never mind me and my weirdness, a challenge is a challenge and I thought that arrows would work really well for another of the "Man-ic" May birthday cards I need to do: a 21st birthday card for one of our nephews.

Materials and Tools

14cm sq smooth white card blank

Bazzill and Coredinations card: black, yellow, 2x shades green

Nesties circles die set (Spellbinders)

Arrows are created from clip art, or screen drawn in Paint Shop Pro then cut with S. Cameo

Numerals also cut with the Silhouette

I based the card on the current LO from The Sketch File Blog, using the curly arrows in place of the swirls and the Numeral piece as the focus topper

April Sketch

I quite like the crisp, bright colours on the clean white, and I think it works OK for a blokey card in the end.
Please click on the link and head over to the Daring CM blog, because the cards are really fantastic this week and if you're like me and unsure about using arrows then you're bound to be inspired!

 Thanks for visiting!

Celebrating Silver

My bro and SiL celebrate their 25th Wedding Anniversary this week - gosh, where did those years go?
I used the current "Ever Decreasing Circles" sketch from the Sketch Fike Blog to make a card for them
I swapped the circles in the sketch for hearts hearts 

 This is a chunky 20x20 cm square card - I wanted to use several of the heart dies, so had to start with something large enough to fit the big one in!

Materials and Tools

20 cm square card blank plus extra sheet for embossing and sentiment

Coredinations turquoise card

Silver glitter card.

Silver textured paper

Plain Silver paper

Patterned papers are by My Mind's Eye 

Silver edged Organza ribbon

"25" silver charm and small silver heart brad

"Spray and Shine"  in silver - (Crafters Companion)

Nested Hearts die set (MFT DieNamics)

Tiny hearts embossing folder (Cuttlebug) used twice to cover the whole of the upper white panel

Taylored Expressions Swirls under the rose

Tiny heart punch

Rose created using large Blossom Punch (SU), then sprayed over with the "Spray and Shine" for a slight glittery finish

Sentiment and mat cut on Silhouette Cameo

What a lot of "stuff" on one card, eh?  Anyway, I  hope you like it and I hope they do too

Thanks for visiting!

Seeing Stars

It's my turn again to share something on the Get Funky Blog today and all this month we're sharing projects made using papers from the Funky Daze CD

Normally selling at a measly £3.99, but if you buy it during April you can have it for just £1....which is an amazing price considering the amount of paper designs you'll then have at your fingertips. If you're not sure about how much you get on these CDs, well there are 15 colour themes, and more that 25 designs in each of them - So you get quite a lot really!

I've made a card this time using just a few of the designs from the "Half Way" section of the Funky Daze CD.

Materials and Tools

Papers: "Half Way" from the Funky Hand  Funky Daze CD
the designs were all printed on textured white Bazzill card
Nested Star die set (MFT DieNamics)
hand-cut panels
Ink for edging

I cut the largest star twice, once as a whole star for the base, then a second time taping the large one and the next size down die together so you get a "frame" shape.  The other stars were cut in the same way, so that instead of being layers of paper one on top of another, they all "nest" inside the largest star frame making a less bulky card

I really like the colour combo of this set, it's actually much "spicier" than it appears in the photos, and a more unusual combo for masculine cards - so this will go into the "Man-ic" May Birthdays pile ready for next month!

Thanks for looking

A Slice of Pie?

Absolutely nothing to do with making pastry"  No, it's all a bit "back to school" for the Daring Cardmakers this week with Jo's challenge:

 I Like Pie!
I'd like you to take your inspiration from all those Maths diagrams we used at school and use a pie chart or other mathematical diagram (Venn diagrams, bar charts, graph etc ) on your card.

As usual the team have come up with some great ways to use different sorts of maths charts to make cards - who'd have thought?

I had a look around Google Images and Pinterest for some ideas, and as soon as I saw a graphic showing Pac-Man as a pie chart I knew it would make a great card for one of my man-heavy May birthdays as well as this fun dare.

Materials and Tools

White square card blank

Bazzill card: Black, Yellow, Dark Blue, Pale Blue

PC generated wording

Sticker Sentiment

Circle die cut 3 times in yellow, once in Dark Blue (Spellbinders Nesties)

Pale blue dots cut using the berries from the Mistletoe  Die (Crafters Companion) 

Black Square (MFT DieNamics nested set)

Tiny square punch

All those dots were stuck on individually!

Gosh I loved the PacMan game on my PC and my GameBoy!  I've got it on my iphone too but I am absolutely rubbish at it on there for some reason. hey ho!

That's it for this time, thanks for popping by

Gold, White and Royal Blue

My aunt asked me to make a card for her to give to my Uncle when they celebrated  their Golden Wedding Anniversary recently.  50 years of marriage - how fab is that?

I really wanted to make something that he would like - he's definitely not a man who likes  fussy things so keeping it simple and stylish was the order of the day - but I didn't expect it to be so hard to keep to that toned-down plan!  It was on the fourth attempt that I finally got something I was happy with - which is a record, even for me!
The first attempts just looked too "girly" and even when I'd got a LO I liked, somehow just using the simple white and gold palette still just didn't work.  Time was running short when one of those "middle of the night" ideas struck, and next morning I rearranged the layers, adding in some gorgeous, rich Royal Blue to the mi.  phew!

Materials and Tools

White card for  a large rectangular card base, plus extra for white layer and printed sentiment

Gold card decorated with a border punch from Martha Stewart

Royal Blue Bazzill card embossed with A4 "Dotted Chevrons" folder (Theresa Collins)

Sentiment is printed then cut using one of the Nested Hearts dies bfy MFT-Die'Namics

Gold heart mat is cut on the Silhouette Cameo

Tiny punched  hearts are shaped using a ball tool

Gold ribbon, heart-shaped pearl

Thanks for popping by, please leave a comment
Back soon with more crafty catch ups!

Fudging it

Here's something I made to share on the "Get Funky and Craft" blog today.  It's a cute little a little "take-out" style treat box using some of the papers from the "Tues Me" section of the "Funky Daze" CD from Funky Hand

It's such a shame you can't share the contents.....but, tell you what, I'll add the recipe below and if you've got a slow cooker you can try it out

What a lot you get on this CD definitely worth it's price of a pretty meagre £3.99, but get this.....buy it during April and you can have it.....for

 just £1....what a Bargain, eh?

Materials and Tools

Papers: "Tues Me" from the Funky Hand  Funky Daze CD

Takeout box template (own), cut on Silhouette Cameo

hand-cut fishtail banner 

Tiny tag die (Crafters Companion)

Flower punch (Tonic)

Medium circle punch (Woodware)

Seam Binding for closure

Slow Cooker Chocolate Fudge Recipe

1 tin Condensed Milk

50g butter

400g chocolate chips or broken up chocolate - milk, white, plain or a mixture!

Switch the Slow Cooker to HIGH, put all the ingredients in

Leave the lid OFF

Cook for about 1 hour, stirring every 10 mins or so

 (I set 10min timers on my phone and got on with my ironing inbetween stirs!)

Line a baking tin (something like a swiss roll tin) with Baking parchment, at the end of the cooking time, spoon or pour the mixture into the prepared tin.  You can add extras (dried fruit, nuts, cranberries etc) at this time if you like

Leave to cool, then pop into the fridge overnight.

Turn out onto a board and cut into pieces 

I used oval doily die cuts cut from baking parchment to prettify the inside of my boxes and to separate the layers of fudge

Anyway, don't forget, this CD is on offer in the SHOP for just £1 at the moment so don't miss out! Here's a quick look at just some of the designs you'll get on it

Thanks for looking, let me know how you get on with the fudge recipe if you try it

April Elemental

This is my card for this week's  "Elemental Inspiration" challenge  over  on the Daring Cardmakers blog

On the first Friday of the month we take turns to choose a picture we think has enough "elements" in it to choose at least three to use on our cards.  It might be the colour scheme, the layout, patterns,  or the items in the picture - once you start looking closely there's usually quite a lot to choose from.  Zuzana chose this gorgeous photo for our April "Elemental Inspiration" picture:

 We made a sketch of the layout for this picture to help anyone wanting to use that as one of the elements

We have the lovely Enfys Cashmore joining us as our Guest Designer for April - this is the second time En has played along with us and it's fab to see her gorgeous cards on our blog again

I can't say I'm particularly happy with my card, but this was version 3 and in the end you just have to give up and realise that what's in your head isn't going to be on happening on paper! 
I used a twisted version of the LO, the colours. the big daisy. the polka dot pattern and the scalloped lace edge on the cup to make my card....which is more than 3 but I was never much good at maths ;)

Materials and Tools:

White square card blank, plus more for inked background

Bazzill; Black, 2x greens, White

Scrap of spotty green paper

White paper for "lace" and cutting the flower

Ribbon x2, pearls, dewdrops, tiny yellow beads

Distress Inks, Cats Eye Chalk Inks

Petite Dots embossing folder (Crafters Companion)  Blossom punch. (SU)

Leafy Swirl and scalloped circle dies  (Spellbinders)

I'll be back tomorrow with a little Easter treat made for Funky Hand so I hope you'll come and see

Thanks for visiting today