Remember me?

Gosh it has been so long since I was last here, so what have I been up to? Well I'm still making lots of stationery and samples, on the day goodies for a local hotel ( place cards, post box etc), I'm still a member of the Kanban Design Team for Aspire Crafts and am still thoroughly enjoying it, making commissioned cards and jewellery and looking after my gorgeous grandson when my daughter is at work. And I've been on holiday too!! Oh and occasionally I do housework lol 

I will update as often as I can, I think I have hundreds of cards I could show from this year alone but I won't....not all today anyway ;) We have had some fabulous kits from Kanban and there have been quite a few this year. I really enjoying making samples which are shown on Create and Craft.tv when the kits are demoed, certain shows are broadcast simultaneously to Create and Craft.com in America too.

Here are a few pictures from the Pretty In Lace kit

I'm really surprised to say that this kit is still available from Create and Craft on Flexipay!   

It's mine and hubby's wedding anniversary next Friday and I have decided to give away a tiara cos I'm feeling generous so if you or anyone you know is getting married this is what you could win :)

 It measures 5cm at the highest point at the front.

It is brand new and unused, I've just decided to give one away as I've decided to discontinue my tiaras as I'm too busy with stationery now. If you decide to enter on Facebook at Party Nights Creations please like and share my page. 

 Thanks for dropping by, back soon xx

Time flies!

As we have all said, in blog land, time flies but I really don't know where the last few months have gone. My business is still on the increase, I'm still loving being a member of the Kanban Design Team and they are still keeping us very busy making samples for the shows on Create and Craft. A couple of cards from recent kits.

This little (or not so little) fella is keeping us all busy!

He is just so adorable and I love spending time in his company. In fact there have been very few days since he was born thirteen months ago, where I haven't seen him, I'm very lucky. This last photo was taken a couple of hours ago from my sun bed (sorry to all who are experiencing a damp bank holiday Monday but we are enjoying a well earned break. Back to reality in a couple of days though ;)

See you soon x

Art Deco ladies

Did you see the Create and Craft shows last weekend where the kit was made of Art Deco Ladies and associated backing papers, card etc? Well, the kit was absolutely fantastic and the girls on the Kanban/Aspire Crafts design team were lucky enough to be given a kit each to make samples with.....and we all fell in love with it :) There are some of the sheets in the kit available on the Aspire Crafts web site.

These are the samples I made for the show

I altered a white paper carrier bag

 

Leonie and Keith both liked my exploding box and gave my name out on the programme :))

There will be a lot more cards coming from this kit in the not too distant future as it's a stunning kit and I have loads left. 

Thanks for dropping by xx

Challenge cards and DT call

I know I've been absent for a while so without going into too much detail, I'm back. My story involves bad backs and crappy lap tops but I won't bore you with the details, I just hope I can get some posts done and get caught up with challenges etc before the lap top packs in again! :)

I have loads to catch up with so I will start at the beginning of this month with any news, challenges etc and once I'm up to speed with April I will start on March (assuming I don't get stuck again!)

So the new challenge for April from the Crafting Muskateers is a good one. The theme is "Monochrome" and the sponsor is Anice McNamee from Funky Hand who has very kindly donated a £10 download voucher which can be spent on the Funky Hand web site. Here is an overview about FH..... 

"Funky Hand started with the launch of our first backing paper CD 'The Funky One'. Things have certainly moved on since then and I would like to thank all of our wonderful customers for making our time in the craft business such fun!

There are a lot of exciting things ahead for Funky Hand so keep popping back to see what we are up to. Anything that I want to let you know about will be added to my blog Funky Hand Thoughts as soon as it happens. I update it regularly with new card designs to inspire you, exciting news that I want to share and just general day to day chat. I look forward to you visiting me there! Don’t forget to leave me a comment so I can drop by your blog if you have one.
If this is the first time you have visited Funky Hand or if you are a Funky Hand customer and friend I am sure you will find something to inspire your paper crafting projects amongst our CD-Roms, downloads, stamps and stash. Don’t forget to take a look at the examples of cards, scrapbook pages and word-books for each CD or Download collection, new ones are added regularly. My thanks to my design team members Kathy, Jackie, Amanda, Jenny, Lou, Allison, Debs, Ni, Belinda, Debbie, Samantha and Ruth for all their hard work creating fab new card designs to add to the ones I pull together when I have a spare moment! As well as making cards for this website and my TV appearances, the Funkettes also run a monthly challenge blog - Get Funky! where there are Funky Hand goodies to be won. Why not have a go yourself?"

Here is my challenge card

 Anice very kindly gave the CM design team a download of their choice to work with and I chose the limited edition "Mother of Mine" download kit. I used shades of pink (apart from the bits of green on the flowers ;)) from the kit.

Why not pop over to the Crafting Muskateers challenge blog and take a look at the fabulous DT cards and entries? You have plenty of time to join in as the challenge runs for a month! We are also looking for a new member to join our wonderful Design Team as Sheena has decided to step down from the team due to other commitments. 

Look forward to seeing you, good luck xx

Kanban Crafts DT call

Good morning all.....if you love Kanban, you will love this :)

Fancy having a go? x

We are looking talented UK Card Makers, Stampers and Scrapbookers to join our team.

This call is for a six month term from March 2014 (This call is for UK designers only).

Here's how to be part of the team...

How to Apply:

Please email the following information to karen.smith@aspirecrafts.co.uk

1. Contact information, including name, address, email and phone number.

2. Link to your blog and/or online gallery. We'd also love to know if you are on Facebook and/or Twitter.

3. Photograph and email us at least 5 samples of your best work, including cards, layouts and other craft projects (Kanban Crafts products to be the main focus where possible).

4. Have you been published? What other Design Teams are you part of and when does their term(s) end?

5. Tell us about YOU....what you love about crafting? Why do you want to become a Kanban Crafts UK design team member?

All Design Team applications must be received by 1st March 2014 to be considered. If selected you will be notified by email.

Monthly requirements:

1. Design Team members will be required to submit projects using the latest products on a weekly basis.

2. Promoting Kanban products on your personal blog and other sites.

3. Submission of projects to magazines for publication.

4. Submission of high quality photo images of finished projects with a products used list or instructions if required.

5. Providing physical samples if requested for tradeshows and/or sales meetings.

What you will get in return:

1. A big box of Kanban Crafts goodies to work with, including new releases.

2. You will have your own album on the Kanban Crafts Facebook page where your work will be posted.

Good luck everyone and we look forward to seeing your work!

Good luck from me too :) xx

Kanban Thursday

"Crafted By You is the new retail division to Kanban Crafts. We will be exhibiting at the NEC 8-11th November stand C16 so please pop by say hi and grab yourself a bargain from our many show offers!

You can also come and meet Kanban's very own Dawn Wheeler (as seen on TV) who will be on the stand everyday to give you any hints and tips.

We will be exhibiting for the very first time and after the show look out for our brand new website that launches on 14th November (details coming soon).

Buy at show, buy in store, buy online.

We look forward to seeing you soon."

I have been a lucky, lucky girl today  as I ordered the new Sugar Buttons kit designed by Kathryn Sturrock and produced by Kanban last week and it finally came this morning. I only need one word to describe it and that is ...stunning! Well done Kathryn. I'm a little bit miffed at Create and Craft though as I ordered the jar of buttons too but that hasn't arrived. If it doesn't come tomorrow I will not be a happy bunny.

So onto my cards (which have gone down to the NEC for the Kanban  displays)

 Bloomingdale Kit

 (Romance Kit)

 150 x 150cm card blank

Kanban insert (the sheet is in all of the kits)

Silver mirri card

PCT9794

Acetate butterflies

Bling GEM5mm & GEM3mm AB

Die cuts

 (My Thoughts Are With You kit)

Cream square card blank

Gold mirri card

900790 Words Of Condolence

900984 Photographic lilies

CRD1487 Gilded Baroque Swirl

PRL 5mm Pearls – black

(My Thoughts Are With You kit)

 White square card blank

900793 Lilies On Black

900786 Guardian Angels

900970 Words Of Condolence

Gold mirri card

Bling - GEM3mm Black

Steampunk Stepper Card

 A3 card for Step card

Industriana paper pad

Gold mirri card

Mink pearlescent card

PCT2124 Steam Punk – Ribbons

PCT2119 Amalia topper

PCT2123 Foil Sentiment – Steampunk 

STMP AS6007 – Keys

Bling GEM5mm AB

8 x 8” square card blank

PCT2115 Just The Two Of Us topper

Industriana paper pad

Mink pearlescent card

White pearlescent card

PCT2123 Foil Sentiment – Steampunk 

PCT2091 Cream polka dot roses

PCT2092 gold mirror polka dot  roses

(Bloomingdale Kit)

PCT2355 Meadow Frames - sentiment tag on card

PCT1950 Chelsea Elements - roses

PCt1955 Beautiful Birds - toppers

CRD1504 Bird cages on Driftwood

GEM 3mm Bling

Gold Mirri card

Pink Pearlscent card

Paper string

Flat packed gift box of your choice

I think I'm just about caught up with what I can show you, so this is a good place to stop.

Thanks for looking, bye for now :)

A Card A Day

Bad girl me had my cards ready before 10 o'clock yesterday, ready to upload onto here and the a Card a Day Facebook page and then it all went down hill. I got bogged down with work and finished a couple of orders then a very special friend came and I sat and chatted all afternoon which was lovely as she usually dashes in and dashes out. Due to family issues and holidays it's about two months since we last saw each other and then time just ran away with me. 

The cards I made were for the new baby who arrived into hubby's family on Saturday morning.

All papers and image are from Nitwits. I can't show the second card as it's for one of my DTs.

I need to get back to my wedding order now as it is almost finished :) and I need to catch up with a load of blogging comments, oh and I need to add a load of stuff we are selling to one of the FB selling sites.

Back soon, thanks for calling. :)

Inspirational Card Sketches

I have major lap top problems at the moment, DH has just taken it to the Lap Top Hospital in the hope that they can do something with it that isn't going to cost as much as a new one! Even worse is that all my contacts, work, accounts, passwords, in fact just about the whole of my life is stored on that blooming machine and I can't access any of it. I'm using DH's pc at the moment and he has managed to access my email account through my business server but I can only view new emails, I can't go back and reply to any of the ones in my inbox and I can't access my address book. Consequently I can't send any emails unless it's using the reply facility :( If you have emailed me and I haven't replied then please email me again then I should be able to reply to you. My other bad news is that the parcel I sent to The Kids Co last week has been returned to me as the lady who it was addressed to is stuck in France because of the ash cloud!! As soon as I know that she is back on British soil I shall resend it. So I am sitting tight this morning waiting for my third pice of bad luck to happen then the good news can start pouring in :) I have had one bit of good news though.....My friend Andrea is winging her way back from New York as I type. They should have come back last Thursday but got slightly held up for some reason ;) So onto my card.....

This week the Design Team have been sponsored by Becca from Pixels To Print. Becca is offering the winner of this challenge 4 digi images of the winner choice.

Materials: image - Pixels to Print, paper - Brenda Pinnick, Page Frill - Doodlebug, MS Punch, Prima Flowers 

Thanks for looking.

A big toot for me!

Why..........cos I made the Design Team on the Inspirational Card Sketch blog and am so chuffed with myself. I like to think that my work has improved somewhat as I applied last year and didn't make it lol!

Today is the new challenge day so why not hop over in a while and join in :)

Rosie-Dee's

Crikey it's week two already of our stint on the DT at Rosie-Dee's and the theme this week is Wedding. Why not hop over and have a look at the wonderful work produced by my Team Mates :) Here's my sneaky for this week

and my card from last week (which I showed last week as I got all muddled up LOL) I think I've got the hang of it now :)Paper - Stampin Up!
Butterfly - Sizzix (cut from blue glitter card)
Ribbon and ric rac - Ribbon Oasis
Beads - from my stash

Please come over and play this week, we look forward to seeing your work :)

Mixed bag...........

........of bits this morning and I will save the best till last ;))

First up, I have done the little extra midweek dare from DCM and enjoyed it again. This is what is required this week Fee Fi Fo Fum.....For our Little Extra challenge this week, we'd like you to "Go Faux it" Yes, all we want you to do this week is to use something fake on your cards. For instance you could make fake ribbon, fake brads or fake chipboard - we think you talented folk can come up with lots more "let's pretend" ideas so we can't wait to see your ideas.

I have used faux stitching, faux ribbon, faux brads and faux diamonds!

My next piece is a challenge from Sue over on the Just Bex forum We had to

I think this may be hard?? but a little different?? what we want you to do is MAKE/CREATE a pressie for a child...maybe your own or a neice or nephew or one to sell on your craft tables. You can use ANY medium you fancy

This is what I came up with

Closed Front and back covers (idea taken from the maze books)

Inside with part word cards. The instructions are stuck onto the front of pockets. Instructions and small cards have all been laminated.

All the words from the pockets. Days of the week are blue and months are green. I used this a lot when I worked at school. I can be made more difficult by making the cards all one colour!

And now for the best bit..............I am now officially on the design team for Debbi Moore and I am just so excited. I've been sat on this news for about 2 months but seeing as I got a call this morning saying that I should have my first kit by the end of the week, I thought it would be ok to tell everyone. :))