Blooming Again!

Well, its Spring-time and we've been enjoying fabulously warm and sunny weather (though the weatherman says that's all due to change for the w/e - typical!).
Maybe that's why everyone's gone all-floral!

Flowers yesterday and Flowers today. Maybe flowers tomorrow too, who knows? lol

Today its Lythan's turn to do the honours over on the Daring Cardmakers - she says:

This week Lythan wants your help through this dare...

SUPERSIZE ME!

I have loads of enormous paper flowers that I have bought and never used. So I want to see some really big embellishments on your cards. Bonus points for outsize blooms!

Well! how about that coming up the very day Tracy's new Creative Treasures Flower Kit landed on my doormat? What a fab excuse to start using these little beauties straight away.
The first of two 65th birthdays one of my customers needs cards for is right at the start of May and Lythan's dare and Tracy's flowers helped me get started. And so did Jozza with her dare of a couple of weeks back - at least I think it was a help, but it could just be that I'm making more work for myself instead! - suddenly, I can't make a card without hiding something!

So, here's my Big Bloomer for Lythan's dare:

The very huge pink flower isn't in the flower kit, but the others are. The whopper is from Dunelm Mills - the card is 14cms square and as you can see the flower nearly meets the edges so Lythan, I'm claiming my bonus point! lol
So, what was the hidden bit here then?
Well, when you lift the right hand flap of the gatefold.....

There's another "flower" with a message hiding underneath.
decorated the inside too as inserts are so tricky for gatefolds - but I forgot to do a photo. ooops!

Papers are Fancy Pants....hang on while I go and check which set......Aged Florals
Ribbon and flowers from Creative Treasures May Flower Kit
Circles, scallops and all words/numerals are Robo cut
The little pink pearls are...hmmm, I can't find them to check the pack - I'll edit when I do....

If you're anything at all like me, you'll hae a nice stash of big bloomers somewhere in your drawers (sorry, I couldn't resist the pun), so now's a great chance to use some of them. The DCM design team have come up with some fab ways to use them to help get the inspiration flowing. Seeing all your creations will be wonderful this week, I just know it.

Back soon with more crafty stuff, but I need to get started on BOY cards now...oh joy....not!

Blooming All Over

Happy St. George's Day!

Lucky me!

I get to give the first glimpses of the May Bubbly Funk kit today on the Bubbly Scrumptious emag and I get to post them here too.

The flowery chintzy papers reminded me of those gorgeous vintage hat boxes so for my first project I delved into the pile of "that'll come in useful one day" things and pulled out one of a set of nesting gift boxes my mum bought years ago - there must have been loads in the set - because she used some before I got my hands on them, and I've tarted up a few to use for presents - and there's still 3 or four left!
The one I chose for this project is abt 12.5 cms in diameter, anad before I got the scissors and glue out it looked like this:
By the time I'd finished it looked like this:
You can see the whole project by visiting Bubbly Scrumptious, where you'll find loads of inspiration for all sorts of projects, plus some non-craft fun and games too

I've a crafting list as long as my arm to get through so I'm heading back to my craft desk now. I hope you've enjoyed your visit to the Wafflezone, and will come again soon :)

Felt Bird

If you like a challenge you might be interested in a fairly new monthly challenge set by Karen over on the Bubbly Scrumptious emag. The challenged run for a month and are just for a bit of fun - and hopefully to stretch our creativity and make us step out of our comfort zones just a little bit.

Last month we were asked to decorate a tin - I did that little brown and cream number with some of the gorgeous Artful Flowers on it. This month Karen asked us to make a felt bird - she asked a few people to make one so she would have something to put on the initial post to give some ideas. Once I'd made mine and sent the pics I completely forgot to add it on here.
I'm busily working on DT stuff and cards for an order so haven't had much I can share this week, but checking all the new stuff on the emag this morning reminded me about my felt bird

He's quite tiny - the whole card is only 12x12cms.
Once I'd made the bird - using the first pieces of felt that I found in my scraps box, I couldn't think what sort of background to put him on. You'd think I'd have learned a little about forward planning by now, wouldn't you? Took longer to decide on the background than it did to make the flippin' bird!

May is fast approaching and I suppose that'll mean another nagging email from Karen lol lol about the next challenge. Actually {wink wink} I already know what it is. Do you want me to whisper?....

Still time to flutter over to Bubbly Scrumptious and join in with the felt bird challenge though....and see all the other fabby articles and projects that appear there every day too

New Shoes

This is another card I made using the April Crafty Templates set, which this month is one of Leo's fab Embellish Buddy sets. These come in JPGs as well as PDFs, which really boosts the number of ways you can use them.
Obviously you can still use them to make shaped cards, but you can also make them any size you like! You can use them as images for your cards; print them off and colour in, or digitally colour them before printing. I've used mine to make Craft Robo templates. A couple of days back I blogged the kitten and doggie cards I made, today I've got my favourite to share

I loved this template - Leo 's put so much attention into the details - look, there's even the little label for the maker's name - you know, the one that sometimes comes unstuck and makes your foot all sticky! I even enjoyed converting it so that Mr Robo could cut it out for me. The great thing is that now I've done it, I'll be able to cut these fab shoes any size I want!

I used papers from the Goodies Kit, also available from Crafty Templates - it's all gorgeous turquoise, brown and creamy shades, with some ribbon, string of "pearls" and other lovely odds and ends.
You can check out all the info on Crafty Templates HERE

One for the Boys

During May I have 6 family birthdays to make cards for. Only two are girlies :( , then there are 3 nephews (15, 9 & 7) and one of my BiLs so I was almost relieved when Rein issued the Daring Cardmakers DT with this one:

It's Rein here this week, and I'm daring you to make a masculine card

Games and Toys for Boys

put a race track, dart board, vehicle... on your card. Here are some from the Design Team to get you started

At least this means I've got one of those dreaded male cards made in good time. As I've just had an order for 6 or 7 "special" cards, also for May, I really need to pull my finger out and get some cardmaking done!

So, here's my card for the DCM this week, I wish I'd used some different papers, it looks a bit dreary, don't you think? I reeally should invest in some new "boy-themed" papers, maybe that would help me feel more inspired for making masculine stuff. I doubt it, but its worth a try - and a good excuse to do some shopping too.
The funny little car is from one of Leo's older Crafty Templates collections, I used Crate Paper "Zoom" for all the papers on this card. The hub caps are large brads flattened by a wallop with the hammer.
I made a Robo template for the balloons then cut it in layers of paper and silver card to get the right effect. The little "badge" is all Robo cut too.

I hope this dare will inspire you to make a masculine card - or maybe even two! They are probably not high on our favourite themes for cards eh? so maybe this is just the push you need to get cards for your dads, brothe's, nephews, OHs and all those other difficult "Male of the Species" cards ready to go.
Please pop over to the Daring Cardmakers Blog - I'm sure the DT cards will inspire you to get crafting with a male theme this week!


I made this card using Beckie's sketch on Bumbleberry Crafts and it sat on my desk for days because I didn't think it looked right. After a while I decided it was the rub-on flowers that looked wrong, it was all a bit "flat".
So I made a couple of mini poppies and added those over the rub-on flowers. I think the tweaked version looks much better, what do you reckon?
Actually, it makes a change for me to persevere and try and make a card work - you should see how many half made cards I have hidden around the place - they may not be "working" but I still can't throw them out (well, the really really bad ones, I do!). I think in thise case it was so close to being OK - and of course I'd put all that effort into making the big tattered poppy, hadn't I?!

Just a reminder that if you'd like to be in with a chnace of owning the little book I showed on here yesterday, then you've got till 6pm (UK time) to make a card following sketch #8 over on the Sketch File blog.
All for now, back next time with another card using the April Crafty Templates Embellish Buddies collection, hope to see you soon

Only Words

One of my most favourite songs is "Only Words" by Extreme - its one of those songs that make me go "ahhhh" when I hear it. Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" does the same and so does "Fix You" by Coldplay.

That little piece of waffle is because the title of the little book I've been making this week was going to be "Only Words" - but after I'd Robo cut the words out I decided against using the "only" - because a) there wasn't really enough room and b) I didn't want anyone to confuse the Extreme song with anything by the Bee Gees (shudder!), perish the thought!
Besides, the contents are nothing to do with songs, lol

Inside this little album are lots of my favourite, most thought-provoking quotations. I had a fab time making this grungey, mucho-distressed little book and its not only my project for today's Bubbly Scrumptious blog, but its also going to be the blog candy for the winner of my Sketch Challenge over on the Sketch File.
If you would like to be in with a chance of winning this book you'll need to be quick as the draw closes tomorrow. More Info HERE

There are lots of photos and info on how the pages are made on Bubbly Scrumptious today. I loved making this mini-book, - its the sort of project that you can really let rip on and try out different techniques - the pages are quite small so if something doesn't work, it doesn't matter too much of you throw that bit away and start again.
I used lots of the really scrappy little pieces of paper which I'd saved from my other Bella Beauty projects too, so if you've been saving your scraps because the paper is too lovely to throw the little bits away, maybe this book will give you some ideas on how to use those scraps up!

That's all for today - I need to head off and wait for the Inspiration Fairy to give me an idea for tomorrow's DCM card - I hope she comes soon as time is running out lol

Thanks for looking -
btw if you'd like to let me know which "songs make you go ahhhh"
I'd love to hear from you

Crafty Templates April Kit

It's an "Embellish Buddies" month on Crafty Templates this time and subscribers will find jpgs as well as the usual pdf versions of Leo's fab templates.

Now, all of the Crafty Template Sets are wonderful, and great fun to use, but getting jpgs to play with is just the best!
You can resize to your hearts content to make shaped cards, or smaller embellishment-sized pictures, you can colour them in digitally or print out and colour the "real" way, or you can do as I've done with my Design Team set and convert for cutting out with Mr Robo.

Here's my first couple of cards:


The lovely papers I've used for these are in the Crafty Goodies Kit, also available from the Crafty Eemplates SHOP
Thanks for looking

Don't forget, there's a sketch challenge with a Blog Candy prize HERE

Candy Anyone?

Happy Easter
I hope your Easter Day is a bit nicer than it is here, where we're into the third day of grotty wet weather. boohoo.

I thought I'd post a ltttle collage of the blog candy I've got on offer over on the Sketch File.

Its still a work-in-progress, but its nearly done and I'm having a fab time making it. As I've said here before I'm not as kind and generous as some - so if you want this little bit of candy you'll have to do more than just leave a message -to get your hands on this you need to make a card following THIS sketch and then leave a message to tell me where I can see it. Only then will your name go into my virtual hat. Check the Sketch File for more info.
You can also find the links for the cards already made using this and the other sketches.
If you use any of the sketches just leave a message and I'll add your link to the relevant list.

Right, I guess I'd better go and get on with making it then!

Thanks for dropping by, please leave a message to say you've called!

Hidden Treasures

Its Daring Cardmakers day today and before I get onto our new dare, I'd like to wish one of our Team lots of Get Well Soon wishes. There won't be a card from our lovely Sue today because she's been in hospital having a knee op this week - hope you're on the mend really soon Sue, and all ready to start dancing again ;)

So, Hidden Treasures, or a bit of Hide and Seek is what we've got over on the Daring Cardmakers this week; we've been making cards with hidden bits that you don't spot straight away. It's Jozza's turn to set the challenge and the DT have come up with all manner of ways of hiding messages or other little extras which aren't immediately in view.

This is mine
I thought I try to make the main embellishment really look as though that was it, a flower on a background of patterned papers with a bow of pretty ribbon to adorn it. I think it might have worked a bit too well and I'll need to add a little tag saying "untie me" to that bow or the hidden bit might remain hidden!

If you undo the ribbon, here's what happens

And inside the tag, there's a message. This is the bit I'm not happy with (isn't there always something?....) I think it looks a bit messy - so I'll probably stick another layer of paper over that bit and do something else!


Some of the DT have shown a couple of pics of their cards on the blog this week, to show the hidden elements as well as the "first-look" card, I think that was way too kind of them and they should have left everyone wondering where the extras were. If you've laready been over to the DCM blog you'll know that I wasn't one of the Nice, Kind Ones. Oh no, not me!

Anyway, I hope you'll think this is a fun dare and intruiging enough for you to want to have a go at a bit of Hide & Seek yourself. I love having hidden messages on my cards, it's something I do quite often on commissioned cards in particular, and the girls have given me loads of new ideas this week. I'm hoping that all the Darers out in Craftland will be sharing even more fab ideas this week - don't forget to leave a message if you do - we do love to see what you make for our dares.

Back soon with my new Crafty Templates cards - the new template set is out soon and it's fab!
Have a great Friday

Happy Anniversary

On the Bubbly Funk emag "Bubbly Scrumptious" its my turn to add a project today.
I'm still having a great time using the April kit, which flew out of the shop as though jet-propelled! There are some of the Basic + Embellishments kits left, but the other combinations are sold out - you can see the kit combos HERE

This week I've made an Anniversary card. The papers and other bits included in the kit are just perfect for romantic themes, so as my Bro and Sil celebrate their anniversary later this month, I thought I'd use the occasion to use up some of the leftovers.

I've been eyeing up the front page that comes in the bag - the one that shows little pictures of what's inside the bag. Often the paper they use for these are a bit flimsy, but this one is nice and thick and definitely usable. You can see how I used that, and see the rest of the card HERE




I've decided what the blog candy prize will be for the sketch on my other blog and will post sneak peeks soon!

Thanks for visiting, I'll have more new things to share soon, so I hope you'll come back then

April Flowers!

Another lovely day here today, it's just soooo good to have the sun shining and to actually feel a bit of warmth in the air - it seems to have been a long winter. The sunny dry weather does mean I'm having to get the hose out and water the bit of garden we've put grass seed down on though, and the new shrubs I planted last week have to be watered too, along with the stuff in pots - I keep thinking it can't last - those April Showers are just around the corner....
A couple of Autumns ago I spent ages planting loads of Spring bulbs out in the garden. They were okay last year, but this year it's been wondeful to see so many daffodils - they seemed very late in coming up but once they did - well, it makes all that digging worthwhile, I do love to see daffs - they really cheer me up.

When we moved here we planted our little magnolia tree into the garden -we brought from our old house and it had always lived in a pot until then. It's taken a couple of years to settle in, but this year I'm soooo chuffed because there are loads and loads of blossoms on it. I was a bit worried when we had some frost last week, but they all look to have survived. I found someone new to look after the grass and help me get control of the rest of the wilderness - and only a couple of sessions later everything is already looking so much better. I know it sounds like I'm a lazy moo but I spent hours weeding and digging and then I'd stand back to look at the results......and find the bit I'd done was just lost among the rest of the mess. I definitely needed help!

I know it's not going to happen overnight, but I reckon that all that ivy and all those weeds that think they own my garden are in for a shock!
I'm so excited about being able to fill the space with plants and shrubs - the local garden centres will make a fortune!


Anyway, on to some crafty stuff.
I've been working with the fab April Flowers Kit from Creative Treasures which is called "Spring Meadows" and is the loveliest mix of flowers and ribbons in lilacs, pale green and yellows. There's a fab stamp too - which I still haven't found, even though I've tidied BOTH my desks now. Bummer too as although I rarely do any stamping, this one appealed to me and I really wanted to use it. grrr

The first couple of pictures show the latest things I've made with the kit, the other two are cards I've already shown eleswhere on the blog, but I thought it might be nice to see them all together. I've still got loads of the flowers left too - you really do get a lot in your goodie bag!

I'll quite often use flowers to decorate a gift. I'd planned to use one of the big blooms for this one, but when I started fixing them together I decided that layering the small and medium sized ones up with small card layers inbetween the flowers worked really well. I used a button-style brad in the middle. The lovely lilac ribbon is in the April kit too.
This little box was cut on the Robo and has a heart-shaped fastening on the top. I thought I'd fill it with those tiny chocolate eggs as a little Easter gift. The yellow twill ribbon and all but the tiniest lilac flowers are from the kit. I've used faux brads for the flower centres, topped with lemon Ice Stickles, the edges of the box were inked in lime, and I added more of the Stickles over the ink.
I've already waffled about these two cards on earlier posts so I'll just show the pics!


Don't forget the Blog Candy Sketch Challenge HERE
Thanks for visiting
please come back soon!

Getting Frooty on a Friday

It's Keryn's turn to set the challenge for the Daring Cardmakers this time and she's feeling Fruity!

Keryn's excited - something about a stamp set that she loves and Stampin' Up - the company she's a demonstrator for over in NZ. Regular visitors to the wafflezone will know that all the stamping stuff means nothing to me, I'm sooooo not a stamper (well, apart from stamping my size 3 occasionally lol). My stamp collection is laughable.

Anyway, there's a fruity theme to one of her fave sets and that's what she's chosen for this week's dare. Any card is fine as long as it's got some sort of fruit on it. Great theme, and the cards the girls have made are fab and so varied - you can't fail to be inspired by he work the DT are sharing on the blog this week!

I decided that a cupcake with a cherry on the top was the way to go
Mr Robo helped me out yet again. This time I actually made the template myself - it's amazing what you can "draw" with the help of Paint Shop Pro's preset shapes! I used a pentagon to make the cupcake shape, then plonked an oval on to make the top bit. A bit of erasing of the lines I didn't want, followed with some "freehand" drawing with the paintbrush tool and the cupcake was ready. The cherries though came from a downloaded free colouring page which I altered to make lots of layers to cut in the different colours.
The tiny cupcakes were cut with the same template.
Paper is Imaginisce *All Kinds of Happy" and Fancy Pants "Celebrate"
Glossy Accents used on the cherries
Crystal Stickles on the tops of the tiny cupcakes

At some point I thought it might be a bit of fun to add a cupcake recipe - my first ideas was to have the cupcake so it lifted to reveal the recipe. I'd have needed a rather bigger cupcake to do that though, so instead I've added it to the inside of the card
Well, you know how it is - you do something like that then realise that now you've got this great big empty white bit facing the now decorated bit of the card's innards, so now you need to fill that up too.

I absolutely refuse to turn it over and decorate the back. I won't do it, I won't do it, I won't do it.

Once I'd actually come up with the idea, I had fun making this. I hope you'll have a go at the dare this week, it's always great to see all the different cards the Darers come up with. You can check out the DCM Blog HERE.

Don't forget, to celebrate visitor "milestones" on this blog and on my Sketch File blog, I'm working on some blog candy to give away to one lucky person who makes a card using the current sketch (HERE) at the top of the Sketch File.

Thanks for visiting, please leave a message!

Vintage Meets Funky

This is another project made using the newly released Bubbly Funk Kit.
One of my regular customers asked me to make a card for her friend, whom she described like this:

"Jeanette can make you sick because her handicraft skills are great, cards, embroidery, knitting and so it goes on. Jeanette is also very kind and generous with her time."

hmmm scary, I thought!

Well, here's the card I've made, I just hope I've got it right. I've gone for a tradional-meets-funky theme, using the lovely vintagey Bella Bella Bellezo papers and then adding a more funky flower element.

There are more pictures and info on how I made this card on today's Bubbly Scrumptious emag - if you visit, please leave a comment on there to say you popped by - I'd really appreciate it.

This month sees a change in the way the kits can be purchased with various options being available, check HERE for more info

I've a couple of blog milestones I'd like to celebrate - a week or two ago this blog had it's 60,000th visitor - even though I'd been watching, in the end it happened really quickly (I think it was about the time I was featured on the wonderful Inspirational blog and I missed it! ooops.

My other blog, where I keep my free-to-use card layout sketches will (hopefully) reach 1000 visitors in the next day or two, so I'm going to be more on-the-ball this time and have already announced some blog candy to celebrate the occasion. Check HERE to find out more.

All for now

Thanks for visiting

Take One Tin

I'm a terrible hoarder!
Even before I got sucked in to all the papercrafting stuff I couldn't bring myself to throw away boxes and tins that "might come in useful one day".
Every now and then I get ruthless and have a clear out, but generally there's always a stash of boxes, tins and other containers hidden away "just in case"
I like to keep a little tin of M&S "Curiously Strong Mints" on my desk to fight off the nibblies.
Actually I'm not sure if I buy them because I like them or because they come in a nice tin (oh how sad I am!).

Anyway, I've been saving this now empty tin for a few weeks and as Karen's current challenge this month on the Bubbly Scrumptious Blog is to decorate a tin, well, it must be fate, eh?

It didn't start out too well, at first it was going to be turquoise and purples. I spent ages covering the tine and making a flower embllie for it - and then I thought "that is HIDEOUS" and went for lunch!

At some point, while munching on a bread roll I remembered the gorgeous Prima "Artful Collage Flowers" I bought a few weeks back and haven't used much, so when I went back to my desk it was to hunt out some more vintagey stuff. What I discovered was a great big hole in my paper stash! In the end I dug out the Crate Avenue collection and recovered the tin, added some bits of lace and ribbon and the gorgeous flowers.

Isn't it funny how when it's going right it all works really quickly, but when it's not you can sit for hours struggling with every paper/embellishment/ribbon and button in your collection?

I do need to cover the inside of the tin though - I'd already alcohol-inked it in purple and I don't have any browny AIs to redo it.

If you've saved a little tin because "it'll come in useful one day" then you've got till the weekend to make that "day" happen and share your decorated tin on Bubbly Scrumptious - all are welcome, the more the merrier!


All for now