The Colour Purple

I know I nearly always say it, but this week's Daring Cardmakers challenge really had me stumped. It's Vanessa's turn to set the dare and she's gone all fashion-conscious!

"This week we're seeing purple! You can blame me (Vanessa) for this one. I'm not a great fan of purple, but after wandering through the streets browsing the shop windows of my new town, I saw lots of purple going on in the fashion displays. So that is your brief for this week! :) Anything goes as long as the predominate colour is purple."

Now, I love purple, I always have done - when I was a teenager I had my bedroom decorated with deep purple paint on three of the walls and some lovely turquoise (another fave colour) and silver wallpaper on the other - I absolutely adored it, and honestly, it looked a lot better than it sounds!

However, I find purple one of the hardest colours to work with, so usually only add little bits of it to cards and other projects. To do something with mostly purple was a tough one. All week I've been mulling it over trying to figure something out! In the end I thought it might help if I actually had a look through my stash to see what I'd actually got that I might use. There's nothing like a bit of stash-sorting to get the mojo going.
The light-bulb moment happened when my eye fell on the "All Tucked In" card I made last weekend and that, along with finding some Imaginisce and Bo Bunny papers lurking in the box formed the starting point for my card.

The card is made by folding a piece of card or paper in half diagonally, then making a few more folds to get the rest of the "envelope" shaped card, complete with a built-in closure. Clever stuff - and pretty easy - as long as you get those first folds in the right places!

There are loads of video tutorials on You-tube, some are easier to follow than others and I found it worthwhile watching a few as they all seem to be clearer on different stages of the construction

I cut the various leaf shapes using Mr Robo, I made the templates using one of my graphics programs as a starting point.
The papers are some I've had for ages, the ones on the front are two sides of one paper are from Bo Bunny, the others are from Imaginisce.
The greetings are more from the sheet I made using decal paper from Crafty Computer Paper. I'm still excited by this stuff. Being able to make my own rub-ons/stickers is just fab and they work really well - they do need a bit more rubbing over with your lolly stick than mass-produced ones, but I can live with that.

The DCM blog looks fab with all that purple, so please check out what the girls have been making this week. Hopefully it'll all help inspire lots of people to get Passionate about Purple this week!

Thanks for dropping by today, please take a minute to leave a comment if you can - I do love to read them.

Indulgence

My project on Bubbly Scrumptious this week is, I admit, a bit self-indulgent!

Ever since Tanya's fab Shabby Chic challenge on the Daring Cardmakers a few weeks ago I've taken every opportunity that presents itself to go down the fling-as-much-on-as-you-can route. I just adore this style of card-making, probably because I get to include so many of the things I enjoy using all on one card.
The downside is that they'll rarely fit in an envelope so making a box becomes essential - or alternatively, you find the box then make the card to fit...

Anyway, moving away from C-word projects for a while is good, and as this months Bubbly Funk kit has a mixture of Christmas and non-Christmas goodies in it, this week I've kept well away from the Christmas stuff and made a birthday card for my favourite Aunt.

The papers in the "Enchanted" kit are so soft and pretty that they are just perfect for a shabby chic project. I'm really pleased with how this has turned out, I hope my Aunt likes it (fingers crossed the proposed postal strike doesn't put the kibosh on her getting it on time), and I hope you will too.
I've written step-by-step instructions with lots of pictures on how to make it HERE in the hope that anyone who thinks they look too complicated will be able to see just how easy to make these cards are.
I'd love to hear what you think of this sort of card, and even more than that, I'd love to see anything you make as a result!

Now I've got a real problem, Vanessa has set the dare for tomorrow's dcm and I haven't a clue what I'm going to do.....
Have a great day

WOYW Wednessday & more C-Word cards

I usually end up writing my BF projects on Wednesdays, but I got it done yesterday instead. As he he spent most of the day on the phone, I couldn't do the load of Robo-cutting I really wanted to do - Mr Robo isn't exactly a subtle, quiet soul so it was find something quieter to do or horror of horrors, attack the ironing pile.

Good job that for once I had my proiject ready to go early!

So today I can show my desk in action I remembered it was WOYWW day and grabbed the camera so quickly that I didn't even put the lid on my glue stick!

This is the sort of mess I usually end up working in - about enough clear space to lie a card down in and the rest of the surface a heap of stuff.

I'll show some sneak peeks of what I was making in a minute.
If you enjoy a good old nosey around other people's workspaces, check out the links on Julia's BLOG to go peeping through those craftroom keyholes.

First of all, it was with good intentions that I sat down ready to make another batch of C-word cards on Sunday. I was really chuffed the week before with the number I managed to make, but the rot has set in already and this week's haul was not only less in number but also, well frankly, they're not great. A couple are OK and a couple will probably be "wallflowers" at the Christmas - left unloved and unsent in the box.

These are OK, too time-consuming to make more than a few of though. I used the same techniques as for last week's DCM card - but only using 3 tree die cuts for each


A couple of these are OK, hate the blue one though and the spotty tree took ages because I stuck my background paper on the wrong way round then had to do a repair job with a different paper rather than bin the whole thing.


This one I quite like the idea of, but I really don't like the Nesties Labels die background. Thing is I can't figure out what would look better.

Finally for today, those sneak peeks I mentioned earlier. Nice colours, eh? Whatever could they be about....

At last I've been able to spend some time blog-hopping - it's been great to catch up with "old" favourites and click some links to find new ones. I'd almost forgotten how much fun, and how inspiring checking out all those crafty blogs could be.

Anyway, I have a couple of things to finish off, and then I need to come up with an idea for this week's dcm. Bit stuck at the moment, :0

Thanks for visiting

Fat Book and More

Before I forget:

I added this new sketch to The Sketch File Blog over the weekend. I hope it'll inspire some of you to have a go with it.

I've not made a card using it yet, so that'll be something to get busy with this week sometime.

Anyway, pop over to the Sketch File to see that and the other sketches, I'd love it if you'd have a go with any of them.

On the right of the screen there's a links list with the cards people have made using the various sketches, plus a list of the most recent links to make it easy to spot the newest entries.

The other day I showed my covers for the fat book pages made by a groupl of us on the Bumbleberry Crafts Forum, today I'm sharing the fabulous pages that are now safely stowed inside. The idea is that all the pages are made exactly the same size - with a 4x4" square area to decorate, then you make a page on the chosen subject for each person in your group. The front of the pages can be as "fatly" embellished as you like, then on the reverse, which should be kept fairly flat you add your personal info and any message you might like to include.

Anne Lise's page
Beckie's pageHazel's PageIsobel's page
Kate's page
My page
I love my finished book, and I think it's fab that all 6 of us have a set of pages pretty much the same as those I have here - I like CJs but the only finished book you get to see is your own, with fat book projects you know they all turn out virtually the same so you see one, you see them all!

I used my luscious DT September flower kit from Creative Treasures to add most of the embellishments for my 6 pages as well as the covers.
I loved the black/turquoise/red colour combo and as the kit contains such a lot of lovely items it was a joy to use for these pages.
The flower patterned lace, ribbon, flowers, card candy, most of the buttons etc came from the kit.
I added in some beads, brads, another type of lace etc of my own - mainly because I felt the need to hold onto some of that kit!
This picture shows all the pages I made:

The papers are Black market paper Society, the "K" is Robo-cut

I made a couple of things during the mini-crop on Bubbly Funk.
Joanne challenged us to use our scoring boards to make a textural background for a project. The example she showed had a wonderful quilted design with diagonal score lines. As usual I had to be different so made my background like this:

The striped paper and the little flowers are from MME Penny Lane - the Maggie May collection.
This litte box was made folling Gez's "mini pizza box" instructions. It was really simple to make and I just love it! I can see a few of these being made come that time at the end of the year. They'll make such cute little gift boxes.

I used the lovely thick Stardream card from PDA for the basic box, then Cosmo Cricket's Ever After papers to decorate it.
Yesterday I made another batch of C. cards but tbh I didn't get on very well - I spent too long faffing about trying to decide what to do instead of actually doing it.

Right, I need to get on with some other DT stuff today, so I should go and make myself a coffee and then get started.

Thanks for looking

Cyber Cropping

We're having a WCMD craftfest on Bubbly Funk Forum today. This is the second time we've done a "relaxed" version of a cyber crop and they are such fun. No real organisation except to announce the day it'll be on, there's no timetable, it's just a free-for-all; any classes, ideas, challenges etc are posted at any time over the day or weekend and you can choose which to do and when. Hopefully over the next few days there'll be lots of crafting to be seen as we work through the various projects. I found a couple of youtube video tutorials to post and made these examples using them. The first is a card that closes up like an envelope with the top flap tucking neatly into the folded square on the front The second project is a little pocket & tag book - the original version used those little wage slip envelopes all glued together to form the pages, then you make a series of tags to fit inside each envelope. I loved the idea but as I didn't actually have any of the little envelopes used on the video, I had to improvise and adapt the basic idea to make a "Kathy" version. This is what I ended up with
Finally for the moment, Kaz sent a sketch out earlier in the week (was that cheating, I wonder? lol) so at least I've already made something that wasn't for a project of my own! I made or at least finished all three of these yesterday and bearing in mind that I'm a very slow crafter I'm quite chuffed with this lot! If you are a member of Bubbly Funk forum I hope you'll pop in and join in the crafting today - if you're not, then why not join - it's free, friendly and it's fun!

Folding Up

Another Friday, Another DCM day, Another challenge to play with.

This week we're having a nice easy one while we recover from all that hunting for tartan Jo had us doing last week. For goodness sake - she forced me to go right to the bottom of that deep and messy ribbon-and-fibres drawer so I need a rest after that.
So this time it's all about folds.

Folding Up

It's "just what it says on the tin", we'd like to see some folds on your cards this week.
Fold the whole card, fold some paper, fold some ribbon.
Do some origami, teabag folding or just fold over a corner of your paper to reveal the other side.
As long as there's some sort of folding used as a feature of your card then it counts. Any subject, any theme, any reason.

Lots of news on the DCM blog this week; we're sending "Get Well Soon" wishes, announcing our new Guest Designer for October and also news about two new DT Members - you can read all about it on the BLOG.I folded several die cut tree shapes in half then glued them back to back to make this 3D tree which folds relatively flat to go in an envelope. This one has quite a few layers but that's because I went a bit OTT. Nothing new there. I added some Stickles to the cut edges.


I used: 14cm square card blank, Spellbinders Pine Trees die, Polar Expressions paper collection from Imaginisce, Chipboard star, Stickles

Those papers might just be my 2009 Christmas faves - gorgeous colours and designs and a little bit of glitter to boot!. I made the word tiles by cutting out some of the tiles on one of the papers and mounting on chipboard.
Thanks to Charmed C&C and Craft Obsessions for their brilliant, speedy deliveries - I didn't have a Plan B if the dies and papers hadn't arrived in time! lol

A week or two ago I showed a sneak peek of a project I'd been involved with on Bumbleberry Crafts forum. It was a Fat Book with the theme "Myself", I really enjoyed doing my pages and receiving pages from the other members of the group. I even managed to get the covers for my book done - I know from experience that if I don't do things like that straight away they just don't get done!

I'll pop the pages on here next time, but here are my covers. I used flowers, ribbons and embellishments from the September Flower Kit from Creative Treasures. I'd based my own page around this kit so continued the theme onto the cover; the red, turquoise and black look fab together.

The Front cover
Inside front:
Inside Back

On the back cover I just traced the paper design (Black Market Paper Society) with Black Stickles glitter glue - but it doesn't really show up in the photo

That's all for today, my next job is to get thinking about things for tomorrow's mini cyber crop on Bubbly Funk. I've got one project ready and a couple of other little things to sort out. I could show you a sneak peek, but I'm not going to.....lol
Thanks for visiting, your comments are always appreciated

Sleigh Bells Ring

The brand new kit from Bubbly Funk has gone on sale today. It's called "Enchanted" and is based around the soft and pretty "Indeed" paper collection from Prima.
Whilst the papers aren't Christmas themed, they will make some lovely Christmas projects particularly if you like that "Snow Queen" feel you get with these colours. I think they'll look wonderful teamed with touches of silver and lots of icy glitter.

I've already done a couple of projects with the new kit and I promise that next week's won't be at all Christmassy, but this week I just couldn't resist using one of the fab templates you'll get in the kit and going with that "Snow Queen" thing to make this little sleigh!

Click HERE to go directly to this project on the Bubbly Scrumptious blog - I hope you like it.
Click HERE to head straight to the October Kit in the Bubbly Funk shop.

The sleigh has been sitting on top of the bookcase near Hubby's desk and he admitted to being tempted by the little sweeties piled in it when he was working from home the other day. He knows me well though because just before he reached out to pinch one he thought "I bet they're not real...."

Before I leave the subject of this kit, I'm just going to make the most of the fact that just for once I'm ahead of the game and have next week's project all ready made and just needing writing up for the emag. Well, you've got to flaunt it on those rare occasions, haven't you?
here are two teeny weeny sneakie peeks of what'll be on here next Thursday.....

Yesterday I was busy writing up the sleigh project and trying to bash a bad headache into submission and completely forgot about the "What's on your Workdesk Wednesday" thing until I saw that Kaz had posted her pics. My desk was really boring - just a "between projects" dump really, so I thought I'd concentrate on my flower collection - or at least some of them for my WOYWW photos this week

Bottles, cans, tubs and boxes of flowers on the shelves above my desk
This cardboard box is A4 sized and about 10cms deep and as you can see it's stuffed full of wired flowers and suchlike. Until recently it was relegated to the "out of sight, out of mind" big cupboard next to the study, but thanks to seeing the beautiful work of Anne Kristine and other very talented crafters the box has come back out into the open. Maybe one day I'll even have used enough of these to close the lid without needing a rubber band to force them all in.

See lots of other crafters' work spaces by visiting Julia's BLOG to get the links. There's nothing quite like a little bit of snooping, is there? lol

That's it for today. I have my dcm card to make ready for tomorrow's new dare. No idea what I'm doing yet - nothing new there, eh?
Thanks for visiting

The Time has Come

On Sunday I decided it was time.

So I took a deep breath, printed out a stack of cards with a Christmas message on the inside and started on our Christmas cards. Yes, I know I've been doing some for design teams, but I hadn't done any of the more "mass produced" type I need for us to send out come December.

Eventually though, you just have to bite the bullet, and even if your hubby gapes open-mouthed when he realises what you're doing, you have to take the plunge.

So here's the first batch of cards for my Christmas box

Dies are Spellbinders Snowflakes set 2
I reckon I can make these fairly quickly as long as I cut all the shapes in all the matching papers/card then sit down and assemble them in batches


Papers MME "Merry Days of Christmas" - I love the more muted shades of this collection.
The Santas are cut from one of the paper designs and mounted on thin card before matting onto another of the papers and some gold card
Trees on the second picture are Cuttlebug dies, the little houses are punched from one of the MME papers. Since taking the photos I've decided that they did need a greeting so I've added some of my home-made rub-on ones now - you can see some of those on the snowflake cards

This morning I've finally got round to taking photos of the lovely handmade cards I received for my birthday the other week so I've popped them onto a slide-show to show them off on here. Wasn't I lucky?

Thanks to everyone who sent one of these fab cards.

Thanks for visiting, I hope you like what you've seen here and will come back again soon