Introducing the THINK PINK Charity Event

The Bubbly Funk Online Shop and Forum have launched another charitable event. A huge sale of handmade goodies is to be held in aid of Breast Cancer Care, You can read about it below.

I'm planning to donate lots of the cards I make for The Daring Cardmakers" and various other Design Teams to the sale. I'm hoping that all you crafty friends who read this blog will want to help too - just contributing one item would be fantastic and help make the sale a success.

You don't need to be a forum member to get involved, if you'd like to donate a card or two, or some other handmade item to this wonderful cause please contact me via the link in the sidebar for further information.

"Think Pink"

Cybercrop and Grand "Think Pink Card and Gift Sale" in aid of Breast Cancer Care
(Registered Charity Number 1017658)

The Bubblyfunk Cybercrop this year will be a fabulous charity event with proceeds going to Breast Cancer Care

A two-day crop will be held on the weekend of the 20th and 21st September 2008.
Caroline (Bubbly Funk Online Shop) will have some stunning kits on sale with a percentage of the kit price going to the charity.
Weekly "Think Pink" challenges are taking place from now right up until the cybercrop.

All we are asking is that you voluntarily donate some of the items you make during the challenges/crop for our fabulous “Think Pink Card and Gift Sale" to be held in West Sussex on 18th October 2008.
The sale is being run by forum member Di O and her friend Emma whose sister has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Di and Emma are expecting around 80 and 100 people to attend this very special sale, local advertising is in place and interviews with local newspapers are already happening

100% of the proceeds of the sale will go to Breast Cancer Care.

We are hoping that we can raise a considerable amount of money for a charity that continues to work hard to provide the highest standards of treatment, support and care for Breast Cancer patients.
Read all about their work at http://www.breastcancercare.org.uk/

More information available on the Think Pink Challenges at the Think Pink Blog

Come along to Bubbly Funk Forum, register and join in the fun.

Ooops Bad Blogger!

I've not been very good at updating my blog over the last few days. Got a "to do" list as long as my arm which has been keeping me too busy to sit down and write about the stuff I've actually ticked off said list!

So I thought I'd upload a few pics now before I get started on the next item on the list.

It's Crafty Templates time again and this month Leo sent some really fab templates for me to play with; cute cherry cupcake cards, some sunny themed templates and even some cute-as-you-like templates for making a couple of teeny weeny explosion boxes.

The Goodies Kit tha's available to buy alongside the templates is filled with lovely cupcake and icecream themed papers, bright coloured card, beads, brads, ribbon and a peice of fuzzy-wuzzy pink card which is verrrrry yummy indeed!
Check out the Crafty Templates website and blog for more info about the Template Set and the Goodies Kit - oh and the "Colourins" that have recently been added to the Crafty Template repetoire.....

Here are some photos of one of the mini explosion box templates available this month























This box is just right for putting a small gift in, but I decided to make another tiny box with my Craft Robo put in the middle - it could hold one luxurious chocolate, or maybe some earrings or a bracelet if I ever get round to making some jewellery again!

Next is the ice-cream sundae card - I know today's weather might make a big mug of hot chocolate more appealing, but you can't have it all, can you? There's supposed to be a sprinkling of pink embossing powder on the top of the "icecream" but I think the powder I used might be "past it's sell by date" as the pink looks a bit murky - sorry about that, but I couldn't rectify the situation as I didn't have anything else to use - I'll sort it out before I use the card though!


More tomorrow.
Thanks for looking,

It's Cold Down Under

These weeks are whizzing past, aren't they? I always seem to be playing the catch-up game with my crafting at the moment. I must try to get myself more organised so that I'm not always rushing to get things done at the last minute, maybe then I'd actually manage to post out birthday cards and the like in time for them to arrive on the right day. This is something I'e been truly rubbish at lately.

Anyway, it's Daring Cardmakers day today and it's Kiwi Keryn's turn to set the dare, she's feeling the chill at the moment, Poor Love so here's what she's asking:

In New Zealand at the moment it's winter and cold and dark. No snow here as temperatures don't get that low but still low enough that that's all anyone thinks about and anyone talks about. So this dare should be easy for those in the colder climes of the Southern Hemisphere but in the North it may be a little trickier. Use images, use colour, use embellishments that make you feel cold and remind you of winter.

I'm really really not a happy bunny doing all this Christmas stuff in the middle of the summer - I don't like the cold and I especially don't like those days when it never seems to get light so all these Christmassy projects and challenges just seem to highlight those long dark days right at the time when they should be farthest from my mind. So no more of 'em, pleeeeeease!
Here's my card
I seem to have used the parts of the paper with the writing on the back for the card -but I think they are Adornit. I made the snowman with my Craft Robo. Version 1 didn't have the robin on it, but Mr Snowman looked a bit lonely so I couldn't resist adding a tiny hand-cut robin.

One of the projects I've been late with is the new Circle Journal that's started on Bubbly Funk forum. Well, tbh I did have my book ready on time, but I'll be sending to Di this time, and unfortunately her last CJ went missing in the post (despite being sent Recorded Delivery, mind you....) part way through the circle. So we all decided to make her pages, or in some cases redo them and send them direct to her so she could stick them in a new book. So I wanted to get mine done so I could send them in the same parcel - are you still with me? :-)
Di asked us to Challenge Ourselves for our pages. If you read this blog regularly you'll know how much I whinge about stamping, so I don't think there was any other choice for me. I can't say I'm happy with this LO, but it was definitely a challenge and that's what Di asked for, so it's all her own fault! My own CJ is called "A Festival of Flowers" and I just couldn't resist using the lovely Fancy Pants "Crush" paper collection (yet) again! I even had to buy a few more sheets of my favourites to make sure I had enough! The cover looks like this: This is the Intro page and my own LO I was a bit stuck for an idea for the signing in pages but in the end I did it like this, using acetateto make pockets so that the finished tags will all show through the clear acetate and look like a garden of flowers - well that's the idea anyway!Just to prove how much I love these papers, and how much I've used the same LO idea of the picture frame and cut out flowers sort of LO, here are a couple of other things on a similar theme! This is my LO for Rosie's "Memories" CJ recently And a card for Keryn's last DCM dare, the theme was "distressed" and I think these papers have a lovely, chintzy shabby chic look I think maybe I need to put these papers away for a week or two now. After all, its not as though I don't have any others to use! Thanks for visiting, don't forget to check out the DCM blog for the other chilly offerings the DT are sharing this week.

Bubbly Box and Sneak peeks of the July kit

This is the last of my projects (well the finished ones...) for the Bubbly Funk May kit & emag. I made this box using 6 chipboard squares and lots of things from the lovely box of goodies that a BF kit always includes.
I've used the Bazzill card from the kit to cover the outside of the chipboard, and painted the inside with an acrylic paint dabber. Once the basic stuff was done I could use the papers, chipboard and some of my favourite things to decorate the box, along with some of the techniques I like best. I had loads of fun designing this project, and the instructions are on the Bubbly Scrumptious blog; which is available only to those who purchase the BF Kits
I went a bit mad with the flower on the top of the box, but I figured it was a good chance to build something really extravagant that I'd never be able to use on a card!

If these last few posts have tempted you to investigate the Bubbly Kits - well, you might like to know that the July kit has just gone into the shop for pre-order. The kits are usually shipped around the 15th of each month, but ordering ahead makes sure of your Box of Delights.

Here are some sneak peeks of the things I've made using the July kit

Tweet Tweet Two-some

These are two more cards made for the Bubbly Funk May Kit, again Dream Street Papers plus lots of the other interesting and inspiring bits and bobs that come in each month's kit
I cut out some of the little birdies and flowers from the papers. I also used some of the flowers as templates to cut more. These fab papers really lend themselves to designs that are a bit "random" and imperfect - which is just as well as that's the only way I can draw/cut out! That gorgeous swirl was one of the chipboard shapes in the kit. I used the Citrus acrylic Paint Dabber (also from Bubbly Funk) to colour it and cut it into sections to use on this card.


For this congratulations card I used the "joy" chipboard word and a large motif from the Birdie Bits paper, plus a corner with the scalloped edge. The little hearts are cut from the velvet paper in the kit. Lots of doodling and a handwritten message to finishTomorrow I'll share pictures of the chipboard box I made for the kit, and maybe even some pics of my "work in progress" - it's been in progress since April so I really should find some time to finish it!

Blackbeard's Revenge

Well, not quite! I've been looking at all the fab Pirate inspired cards and scrap pages with admiration but hadn't had a go myself until last week. But with a birthday card for my 8 year old nephew to make and not the glimmer of an idea what to do I was trawling through the stash looking for inspiration and found this chipboard skull and crossbones which was bought ages ago and had been left lurking in the drawer ever since. I remembered seeing a fantastic Spanish Galleon template for the Craft Robo, so I thought thses things might solve my "boy card" problem. However when I tried to cut the ship in the size I needed it just fell to bits - it was far too detailed for this project, so it was back to the drawing board and I ended up making my own template using a colouring book page as the starting point. Tell you what though - I'm well-pleased with the results, especially as I managed to do it all myself without having to ask Hubby for a reminder on how to separate all the sections so they'd cut in the different colours. woowoo I think I might actually getting the hang of this - now if only I could crack how to make more complicated designs from scratch......most I've managed was a set of traffic lights made from two rectangles and 3 circles The pirate grosgrain stuff down the card has also been sitting in the drawer for ages - I found it along with various other designs in Wilko's - it's actually a sort of strap thing with a lanyard wotsit on the end for hanging a mobile phone/keys/etc from - I think it's to be worn a bit like a Miss World sash iykwim! Anyway I knew it would come in useful one day. :-) The wavy black Bazzill was in a Self Addressed kit a while back, and I doodled a lá Jo around the edge with my new "white pen that works"(yay!)

ohhh I said I was going to start showing my stuff for the May Bubbly Funk Kit, didn't I?
Good timing really because it was the lovely Lythan's birthday yesterday and I decided to send her one of the cards I made for the kit.
The papers were all Dream Street "Birdie Bits" which is such a scrummy set to work with. Caroline added matching Bazzill, velvet paper, chipboard birdies and other bits, some lace paper and all sorts of other bits and bobs to the kit. I love this kit so much that I've got another project which is still a work in progress because I've pretty much used up all my paper and need to buy more. Maybe I should go and do a bit of shopping later....

I'll add some more Birdie Bits tomorrow

Thanks for looking

Season's Greetings

Not only did hubby feel the need to vocalise the fact that this week saw us nearer to next Christmas than last Christmas but Jo (fabby though she is) only went and landed a Christmas card dare on us for this week's Daring Cardmakers challenge.

Now I really don't like to even think about making Christmas cards till the end of September. I do like to start buying the odd thing to put away for Christmas presents, but that's different because it doesn't feel like the dreaded Christmas shopping when you're only buyin the odd item.

Sometime around April or May a CJ arrived asking me to do a couple of pages about Christmas too, so I think the Christmas goblins have it in for me this year!

Anyway. After the shock of reading Jo's dare subsided I decided that it would be fun to go along with my current love of chipboard birdies, branches and circles. Here's my card

I drew the basic birdie shape on "cereal packet chipboard", then used paper from the BG Figgy Pudding 6x6 pad to cover the bird's wing and background paper circle. The red card is just made from a scrap of dark red Bazzill
The branch is from Bubbly Funk and I just inked it up with shade of brown, orange and red inks - the leaves are supposed to look like those last few that hang on all through the winter. I added a bit of glitter for a frosty look
The letters are rubons - they are teeny tiny Doodlebug ones that came in an old Self Addressed kit. Yet again a little bit of unwanted rubon attached itself to the corner of the little card - but I disguised it this time by popping the corner under Robin's beak
It all looked a bit too naked so I put a dotted border around the card

I quite like the idea of this one so it might be one of my card designs for this Christmas. Usually I hate any cards I make ahead of the real Christmas card making season, so I've surprised myself with this one!
A real scary dare Jo - thanks for that, Mate! :-) :-) :-)
I've got a few commissions on the go at the moment. This one is for a 30th Wedding Anniversary. As that's the "Pearl" anniversary I've used a string of pearl beads around the message. I've also used gold heart-shaped brads, heated up and dipped in pearl UTEE. I didn't really want a very in-your-face gold effect on this card so UTEEing the brads worked quite well. I used a really soft gold coloured and slightly glittery card to cut the fancy bits of the Cuttlebug hearts. That beautiful ribbon from Ribbon Oasis (of course....) is cream, but with tiny gold spots.

The gorgeous papers are from Dream Street Papers, this set is the Carrinna Rose collection, which I love for it's soft colours and elegant designs. They do seem to have a paper collection for every possible style and occasion whcih is probably why I've been tempted into acquiring quite a lot of their stuff recently!

Last up for this time is cj entry I've just finished. This one is for a tiny book - I think it's cut with a sizzix die - so I've tried to keep it fairly simple. Hard for me as I do have a tendency to throw a lot of stuff at my LOs! The theme of the book is "My Name" and I've gone along with what others in the group have already done and kept the journalling hidden away on tabs and tags.
Now that the Bubbly Funk June kit, and access to the fabby Bubbly Scrumptious e-mag is already in the sticky mitts of the subscribers, next time I can show the things I made for the May kit. The sneak peeks are here and hereif you want to see them again

Thanks for visiting. hope you'll come by again soon

My Beautiful book

I'm listening to Coldplay's Viva la Vida atm. Actually I've listened to it at least once a day since it landed on my doormat a couple of days after it was released - and if that makes me sound sad, mad or just bonkers, well so be it. I just love this album, I think it's fab - it was worth the long long time we've had to wait for it.

Anyway - on to crafty stuff!

I'm so thrilled with my Bubbly Funk Circle Journal!

It arrived home this week after travelling around the country since the beginning of October last year, and I really couldn't be more chuffed with the results of it's epic journey. All those involved have done a fab job - and considering I was asking an awful lot when I said (with a little bit of aprehension):
"In this Circle Journal I want you to share your favourite crafty stash with me...."
I'm absolutely thrilled that no-one held back - they really did use that stash and the resulting pages are wonderful - maybe we should use our facvourites more often if this is the sort of thing we manage when we do!

So, huge thanks to Rosie, Karen, Ann, Tracey, Di O, Linda, Caroline, and Di W. Not long now till it starts all over again and a new CJ begins it's travels....

Here is my lovely "Stash Attack" - you can click on the photos for a closer look

The cover
The Intro and my own pageThe pages by my talented forum friends
The sign-in pages

Another one that got away

Here's the other card I started making for Friday's Quick Cards dare. The idea was simple enough; a piece of stripey paper and a line of flowers. Most of this one was done in half an hour too. Hand-cutting flowers from a sheet of paper may sound time-consuming, but it's not really. All the papers are BG Romani.
It was when I started faffing around with die-cutting more flowers; some using fake chipboard for extra dimension, and hunting out the right shades of Primas, and felt flowers that it all got out of hand. And then deciding to see what delights might be a good match among all that new ribbon I bought the other week. And deciding that some doodled stitching and writing would be a good idea. And dropping an open inkpad on the edge of the card so that I had to ink edges I hadn't planned to ink....
So time got away from me, and I'm not even very keen on the resulting card just to add insult to injury!
I sent this little chap to Nicky in with some chipboard for the swap on JB forum. Obviously as it's a chipboard swap I had to use some on this little card, didn't I?

Papers are a mixture of Crate's Sweet Branch and Cosmo Cricket's Honey Pie. The eyes and wings of the owl are cut from gorgeous velvet paper. Only when I'd finished did I realise I'd used eyes for the big size owl on the little sized owl's bod!

Never mind, he looks ok I think
Chipboard Owl and the branch he's sitting on are from Bubbly Funk

Thanks for popping by, that's all for this time, but my beautiful CJ arrived home yesterday so I'll take some photos to share on here soon.

Quick cards aren't my forte

First of all, thanks to all who joined in with the dare I set on The Daring Cardmakers blog las week. The cards were all wonderful and full of interesting and inspirational details - which is, after all, what all these challenges are about. This week the DCM have been challenged to make cards quickly. It was Tracie's idea for a dare and it was a really tough one for me. I faff and dither and change my mind about papers/embellishment/layout all the time - which is probably why I have that stack of half-made cards I spoke about on my blog a few months back! At the third attempt I managed to rein myself in and step away from the desk, finally resisting the urge just to add an extra ribbon/brad/button. I thought I'd done really well to make my card in 30 minutes till I heard how quickly some of the others had made their cards.
In my defence, I didn't get everything out first and I didn't plan exactly what I was going to do - all I had in my head was that a chipboard birdie and a circle would be involved. So within my half hour I chose the papers, covered the bird, cut all the bits and pieces and printed the message as well as working out where it was all going to go - I think that's pretty good actually. So there!
The paper is all from Crate's "Sweet Branch" collection. I cut the scalloped circle with the Robo. The branch is from the punch out sheet that comes in the collection pack, as are the rub-ons.
I mucked up the left hand corner when a bit of rub-on that I didn't want decided to attach itself to the card - so I had to add some flowers to cover it....and then I had to balance that by adding a bit of stuff in the top right as well.
Bummer - it would have all been done in 20 mins if I'd not spotted those rub-ons lurking in the bag. Chipboard bird is from Bubbly Funk
Please pop over to the DCM blog to see the super-speedy cards the other girls have come up with, they are all fab and I'm sure they'll give loads of inspiration for when you need a card in a hurry!
The card below was my first effort. I did actually make it in under 30 minutes but I discounted it because I faffed about with the ribbon trying to work out how to do it, and then the knotted piece took forever to "persuade" through the loop in the button, because I'd pulled the lower ribbon through the holes of the button too tightly to allow me to prod the short piece through. If I'd used this as a dry run and made another to the sam design it would probably have only taken 15 minutes, but that seemed like cheating! Papers are MM Noteworthy. Flowers are more of my new Primas from Creative Treasures- wow, what a colour match! The flower centre is a cuttlebug die cut from gorgeous spotty velvet paper that came in an old Bubbly Funk kit and is only used in tiny bits like this because its sooooo gorgeous! Ribbon is from Ribbon Oasis - I've got this ribbon in several colour combos and I think it's the most used design, somehow one of the colourways always manages to fit in with my projects - and the design is on both sides so none of that irritation trying to tie it so only the pretty side shows! Jewels, button and shiny eyelet all from stash There's another not-quite-quick-enough card, but I'll save that for another day Thanks for looking
Don't forget to check the post below to see if I tagged you.....

Time to Tag

I've been tagged by Leo and as I've not done a tag in ages and I'm in prevarication mode I'm going to have a go at this one.

The "rules" of the game: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

Ten years ago:
I had the get the photo albums out to remind myself! I'd given up teaching and we were having a great time going away for weekends and holidays without waiting for the school hols. That year we went to Rome, Northumberland, Greece and the IOM - funnily enough that was the last time we went for the TT races till this year! It was our 5th anniversary that year and we had a long weekend in Rye which was wonderful - I remember they brought us breakfast in bed at the hotel we stayed in and we also had a bottle of champagne. It was a busy baby year too - my friend had her 2nd son, our niece Emily was born, and my cousin's little boy Luke put in a rather earlier than expected appearance. Hubby's Best Man got married that year so weused the wedding as an excuse to have ourselves another long weekend away,

Five things in today's 'to do list':
1. Get on with projects for the next Bubbly Funk kit
2. Write a letter - yes, a real one, not an email to put in with friend's birthday card
3. Do insert, bag up and send off a commissioned card to customer
4. Walk along to town to do a bit of shopping
5. Make a card and send off with some chipboard for a forum chipboard swap

Snacks I enjoy:
Chocolate.
Icecream
crisps
I know, they're all on the BAD list!

Things I would do if I was a millionaire:
Spend a bit, give a bit away, save a bit.
Buy a little house at the seaside - just a little bolt-hole of a place - or maybe two in different places.....

Places I have lived:
I've lived on the Norths East coast, the North west coast and now I live miles and miles away from the seaside, and much as I love living where I am now, I still yearn for the seaside - which is why I'd love that seaside bolt-hole!

So now I need to tag 5 or 6 more people. Rosie, Sue, Jo, Vanessa, Kaz and Karen - I'd love it if you were to join in with this one.

A Party Dress, Two Little Birdies and a Whole Lot of Ribbon!

Apart from a load of other things I need to get done, I've suddenly got several commissions for special cards. It's a strange thing that I don't get asked for anything like this for a while, then withine the space of a few weeks there seem to be loads.
So today I've got a couple of these done, one for a wedding and one for a little girl's first birthday.

I used the gorgeous, glittery "For Peeps Sake" papers from Imaginsce, plus some pink glitter card for the name, which I cut on the Craft Robo. Tiny pink buttons filled the top corner in and I knew that little pink butterfly would come in useful one day! I think I might add a tiny bit of glitter to the bodice of the dress as it looks a bit plain, what do you think?
I had something like this in mind when I ordered all that yummy chipboard from Bubbly Funk last week. I didn't realise at that point that it would take two tries to come up with the card. I found a sheet of beautiful KI Memories paper when I was looking for something else - I had a sort of red/black/white/silver theme in mind until then. But even though the paper was gorgeous it just didn't look right when I put all the pieces into place. So I went and had some lunch. As you do. This afternoon I decided to go start again and use a plain white card, and give the birdies a blue circle to sit on instead of the other stuff. I still used the wings, hearts etc that I'd already cut from the first effort. The silver paper the birds are made from is a sort of fibrous stuff stuck onto a folied backgraound - I think it came in one of those packs that look really pretty in the shop then sit in your paper box for evermore. Nice to find something to use it for!
Chipboard birdies plus the branch and leaves are from Caroline, The Chipboard Queen over at Bubbly Funk.
I'm glad to hear that the pics I posted of my fab new chipboard sent some of you scuttling over there to get some chipboard stocks of your very own. hehehe

I wonder if you've got enough ribbon?

Just in case you're not sure, here are some of the new supplies that landed on my doormat last week courtesy of the wonderful Ribbon Oasis.
ahhhh go on, get yourself over there, you know you want to..............