Round Two

Lisa from Funky Fairies has just joined the team of challenge mods on the JB forum and this is her first challenge.......

It's the last week of term before the kids finish for summer hols. You need to make a teacher a card without mentioning School or having anything to do with school on your card.

.........and here is my card

right, off to the next challenge :)

Yesterday's offerings

I didn't manage to get much done yesterday as mum and dad came for lunch and didn't leave till 5. I did manage a page though for another challenge on Just Bex This challenge was set by Est over a week ago and I have just managed it. Here's what she said: Your challenge is to buy a piece of jewellery/badge/keyring etc and incorporate this into a scrapbook layout.

This is my piece of jewellery. DD decides to take it off the card for me and promptly pulled the catch off so it was just as well that I was taking it to pieces!

This is what I did with it. DD and her friend were messing about during a sleep over and took the photos on her phone then played with them in Photoshop. Such a clever child. LOL I kept to the black and white theme to tie in with the photos. At 11.30 last hubby remembered that he needed a leaving card for work. He printed off the pics and I made the card and this is how it turned out.

My fab postie has been with nice parcels again this morning and just look what I got *:)) big beaming smile icon needed*These papers are just stunning. A couple of the pads are replacements but two of them are new. Unfortunately the 12 x 12 is for my mums birthday on Saturday. I have ordered it for me though :))

When I first bought the pads I paid £3.75 each for them, then I found them on the SSUP web site and if you spend over £10 p & p is free. The service is excellent too. I really must start a fave shops list as I cannot recommend highly enough.

It has taken me 3 hours to write this entry. My daughter and son in law appeared having just been to the doctors. Lee was cutting the grass on Saturday and was bitten by something. He got up this morning and his hands and wrists are so swollen that he can't make a fist. He has been given antihistamines and steroids and has to go back tomorrow. As they were leaving one of my very dear friends arrived. Kath has been caught up in the Toll Bar flood and is still living in the local leisure centre. I wanted her and her daughter and grand-daughter to come and stay here for a while but if they move out of the centre voluntarily, they won't get caravan accomodation.

Right on with the challenges and I will be back later.

Maze book part 3!!!

LOL sorry about this but I had a flash of inspiration this afternoon and just had to share it to complete the picture.

I was scouring the photos this afternoon as I need to do a couple of scrapbook challenges (I'm waaaaaaaay behind on these). Anyway, as I said I had my nose pressed against the screen of my laptop and whilst browsing the cd containing our wedding photos, I came across photos of two very special people. Upon finding said photos I just had to add them to the tags in Harriet's maze book because.....................

these lovely people are Harriet's Grandma and Grandad :) I just mounted them straight onto the tags and have left the backs blank so they can both add a little message of their own. I will also promise to make Francesca one when she reaches the ripe old age of 4. :))I have finished the maze book I started ages ago for mum as it is her birthday next Saturday. They are coming tomorrow so she can take her parcels home with her to save me posting them.

The papers are from an old SA kit and I've stuck to a predominantly aqua/turquoise and brown colour scheme.

Well I spent a couple of hours in the garden this afternoon and pruned back a couple of overgrown bushes. I tried weeding but the ground is still holding so much water it is like great clods of clay, so I gave up after a while. I thought I would clean up after DH had gone to work..................how wrong I was. I have faffed about all evening and all i've done is finish my mums book, put a load of washing in and had a shower. I think I may have to get up rather early tomorrow as the parents are coming for lunch!!!

Haberdashery challenge

I decided today not to use a maze book as a birthday card for the two year old (see yesterday's post) and used this week's dare to make a real birthday card :))

G'day all, Gillian here, and it's my turn to dare you all this week
Your card can be any theme you like, just as long as it's got something you'd find in a Haberdashery Department on it
Alright then, grab that old sewing basket of yours or raid your sewing machine drawer, have a look at what creative bits are hidding away there....maybe it's buttons, a zip, hook & eye's, ribbons, braids, Dressmaking patterns, tape measures,Pins & Needles, lace, safety pins or embroidery thread....
so many wonderful little treasures just waiting to be added to your next card :O)
I'm going to add one more rule....
Yes you may stitch on your card, but that can't be your only haberdashery item....

Haberdashery items used are buttons, satin ribbon for bow and cotton daisy 'ribbon'. I think this is much better for a two year old's birthday, but then I'm biased! LOL

Here is the maze book I made for the 'big' sister.......she will be four on the 31st July :)

Front cover and tags. I've left them blank so Grandma Sue can add some bits of her own and I thought that Harriet could use the teddy tag as a little bookmark.

And finally, the card I made yesterday has been photographed. This was another first attempt and I'm quite pleased with it.

Phew................goodnight!

Quick post

Just a quick one tonight to show a card made this morning. I'm certainly getting use out of this die at the moment. This is the third time in as many weeks that I've made new home cards for my personal use!

I do think it's sweet though. I have two 'house' stamps which I usually use it rotation with the die but my mum has one of them and I had actually forgotten about the other one until now! Never mind.

I have also made two wedding invitation samples, two maze books and a special boxed card today. I will show the invitation if I get the order. The maze books aren't finished yet. They are for sisters......one is four at the end of this month and the other is two next month. My friend saw the one I made for Annette last month and liked it enough to think that I could maybe make her one for Harriet and in my opinion if one sister gets something different to the other sister, there is all hell to pay, so I thought I would do them one each! Might change my mind yet ;) The third card from the order, the boxed card, is finished but hasn't been photographed yet. will get them sorted tomorrow.

I've just realised, I haven't used Sue's template today, oops!

Well I'm off to bed now as I've had a headache since last night and it won't go away.

More SWOT

I like this template (see below), I think it is what is know as simple but effective. I had a rush order this morning for a male thank you card (don't do many of those) and a birthday card so here is what I came up with-same template, different designs, crafty eh!?!

I might just get some more mileage out of this one..................thanks Sue :))

Right, 3 more cards and a civil partnership invitation sample are calling.

Bye for now.

Little extra

I'm not sure if I've done this one, but this is my train of thinking......................1960's=Italian Job=Mini!! This is the 'Little Extra' from the DCM We've another Retro challenge for this week's Little Extra.This time we'd like you to find your inspiration in the 1960s.

I've also incorporated a SWOT challenge from JB. This is the template

Do you think it fits?

Papers are from the mat stacks by K and Co and the stamp is from Blade Rubber Stamps.

RAK

I received a parcel this morning from a lovely fellow crafter in Scotland. I have wanted a set of pearlised paints from the Works for ages and haven't been able to get any (I didn't realise that they had a web site and never thought to look for one!!) Anyhow, I got a pm on a forum from this lovely person and she said she would get me some and refused to take payment for them so a little pressie will be winging it's way north of the border any time now. I won't name her as I wouldn't want to cause embarassment but she knows who she is :)) Thank you kindly, you made my day.

I have finally managed to get a challenge done from the JB forum. This was set by Est last Saturday and this is what we had to do

Okay ladies I hope you are ready for the latest challenge This is to complete a "sleeping" scrapbook page Your photograph could be of a sleeping child...ahhhhhh a sleeping animal or a sleeping (or crashed out adult!!!)

and here is my page

Base card is from the large card pack from DCWV. Papers are from the Let's Kit Together Baby Boy kit by Doodlebug, these are really lovely packs and a really good price from A Card 4 U

The large 'd' is Pizzazzill and the rest of the words are Curly Gurly.
Off now to catch up with the other challenges on JB and the midweek 'Little extra' from DCM.

Atered notebook

The new Friday night challenge over at the Just Bex forum was to alter a notebook. Now I'm not a great fan of altered art, it just doesn't 'do it' for me but I don't mind covering notebooks. It must be a throw back from when I was at school when our homework for the first week of a new term was to back all our excercise books! A lot of kids used to used off cuts of wallpaper but mine were always done with pages of 'Jackie' magazine. (no "age" jokes please-I am aware of how old I am ;))

Anyway, mine started off as this

and ended up like this

Papers are Dovecraft Charcoal prints, chipboard letter is cut from a cereal packet 3 times, glued together and painted with household emulsion then coated with Diamond glaze and the ric rac, brads and Primas are from stash.

Must go and dry my hair as it will be all stuck up if I go to bed with it damp.

Cute cards!

The DCM have just announced the dare for this week and it has spurred me into using a new Cuttlebug embossing folder for the first time. I just loved this folder as soon as I saw it on the Oyster Stamps web site but when it came I wasn't sure what to do with it as it is C6 size. Anyway, back to the task in hand, the dare.....this is the instruction for this week:-

Well, this week the Design Team have come up with this idea for you to play with, we hope you'll enjoy it.
TEXT...
definition... the main body of matter in a book or manuscript. the actual wording of anything written or printed, short passage of scripture, etc
We'd like you to somehow incorporate text into your cards this week - not just one word.. but a portion of TEXT... like a poem, or newspaper print, Caligraphy, Even rip up an old text book and use some of the paper from it, there are masses of possibilities here, so let your imaginations run riot and let us see you texting to your heart's content!

and here are my cards, yep that's right, I made two :) (I always make baby cards in pairs, one boy and one girl, and sometimes a twins one too.)

The folder is embossed onto Bazzil card and mounted on a sheet from the Small Wonders mat pad by Brenda Walton. The silver ABC charms tied on the ribbon is from CBC the flowers were from ebay and the brad in the centre is a pink pearl brad by Papermania.

Again the embossed card is Bazzil mounted this time onto card from the Small Wonders Boy mat pad. The silver shoe charm, gingham ribbon and buttons are all from the Crafts By Carolyn shop.

If anyone is going abroad this weekend is there any chance you could fetch us some sunshine back please. This weather is so grim and depressing. We were so hacked off the other night, we booked our holiday for next year! We are going to Cornwall for two weeks on 2nd August and I have a sneaky feeling that we won't be spending much time on the beach!

Message for Kathy B......we have booked to go back to Zakynthos for two weeks from the 5th August next year. :))

New CJ

I didn't get the chance to blog yesterday as we had no internet connection all day. It finally came back at about 11 pm. We have cable broadband and apparently it was something to do with the flooding in the area. Bit of a pain in the bum really, especially when you run an internet based business from home!
I just thought I would add photos of my new Circle Journal which has now started doing it's rounds in the groups on the Just Bex forum I just love doing these. There are some awesome crafters out there and it is wonderfuls to see all the different interpretations on your subject. We have also done another one on the CBC forum That one actually comes home next week and I'm really looking forward to getting it back

Front and back coversMy welcome page and rules

My DLO
and finally my sign in pages.

Here are a couple of ordered cards from last week.

Bye for now.

I just got tagged

............by Cheryl. I've never done this before!

Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to blog about their 7 things and post the rules as well. At the end of your blog you need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!!

1. I always have my first dose of internet browsing whilst drinking my first cup of coffee of the day. Once that's out of the way, I become human!!

2. I have the most appalling memory. If I don't write it down , I forget it. If you've looked at the photos on my blog you will see post it notes across my shelves-that is my memory. LOL

3. I absolutely hate winter and could quite easily hibernate from October till March.

4. I am just getting into scrapbooking thanks to various forum challenges and am buying pretty papers in far larger quantities than I am actually using. I'm sure that is quite normal though.

5. I don't drink tea!

6. I love beads and have far too many. I always take them on holiday with me when we stay in this country as I can slip a couple of decent sized boxes under my seat an no-one notices. :)

7.I can't draw to save my life and bless the day I found rubber stamps!


I tag..................Jo, Rach, Sue, Kathy, Sheila, Angelnorth, Lythan

Sorted!

It took me 2 hours yesterday morning to get my room back to this stage. LOL I meant to post the pics last night but was too tired!
At least I can see what I'm doing again. :)

My wonderful postie has just brought me some fab ribbons from Ribbon Oasis I got Peaches and Cream and Sunny Daze and they are just gorgeous.

Aren't they just lovely? He also brought my new Cuttlebug dies from Top Topper Shop Yet another online shop which offers quality good and the most fantastic service. I ordered the dies yesterday and they arrived this morning.

Right I am now off to find the new midweek dare on the Daring Cardmakers blog.

Back later.

I'm back............and I have just done my 'Little Extra'.


We hope you'll enjoy having a bit of fun with Lythan's fab idea for the Little Extra challenge this week:
We'd like you to have a go at making a cartoon inspired card! You could use the colours and patterns (eg Minnie Mouse's dress would mean a black, white and red spotty card; Winnie the Pooh red and um, honey coloured) or symbolic (eg using an anchor inspired by Popeye).Please take care not to infringe the copyright rules - you might need to think a bit more laterally with this one.

This is what I came up with

Totally inspired by one of DH's heroes..................................Dennis the Menace!! LOL

I didn't have any red card blanks so I made my own. Both red and black card from a DCWV 12 x 12 card pack. Daisies are made from ready frilled quilling papers bought from Lakeland (in a rash moment, as you do) and held onto the card with red mini brads from stash. Black card is punched with the new X-Cut border punches and I can't remember where the red gingham ribbon is from.

That's not a mess ....

........this is a mess! Est posted a pic of her 'untidy' craft space last night after the challenges on Just Bex had finished and it put mine to shame before I started. See for yourselves (I'm sure she won't mind me sharing) This is her space

and this is mine!!

Not much difference there then! :))

Challenge 13

I have done challenge 13 but am too late for the challenge as the time is now 3 minutes past 12 :(( I have had to scan it in 2 halves too as the camera isn't charged, so will redo it tomorrow.

Challenge 13 - LO using a song title

And here is the complete picture :))