I've been tagged...

and I've also been infected by the most horrible cold bug - oh groan - moan - feel really horrible. Think I may go back to bed, but before I do I must get this done as I was tagged earlier in the week by my friend Chrissie and today by Ann. Have also just found out that I was tagged by Beryl, but she forgot to tell me!! That's the sort of thing I would do!!!

Time for action!

I haven't been involved in one of these before, but in theory you go to the sixth file on your computer and open the sixth folder and then put the 6th photo on to your blog.

Hmmmm - I did try but the file was called 'Stuff to print' so things did not bode well and on further inspection the sixth item was an image from Dover Publications free samples. Not really what anyone wants to see.

So I took no more chances I picked up the 6th CD of photos on the shelf - opened the 6th folder and chose photo number 6! Oh no it's me - why couldn't it have been scenery? or my daughters? anything but me!!!

Oh well - it could be worse it could be the one ... whoops I'm saying no more!

I am now supposed to tag some more people but as most of my friends have been involved in this I will just say if you have 5 minutes to spare check out your 6th folder - it may bring back some really fun memories.

Added information...

Loads of friends have commented that I look really happy in this photo - well I was!! I had just recovered from a hip operation in time to go on a previously booked holiday to Brazil. It was a special family holiday to celebrate BIG birthdays - someone was 50 - and daughters were 18 and 21 all in the same year. We had a fabulous time - a truly special holiday.

Holly commented on the flowers - oh there were some fabulous blooms out there. It was actually their winter at the time we went so there was rain occasionally as well as fabulous sunshine. The hotel gardens were just full of blooms such as the gorgeous hibiscus behind me in the photo and also these fabulous Bird of Paradise plants were everywhere.

A little bit of sunshine...

A card for my daughter Shelley, who is and always has been my little ray of sunshine even though there have been some dark clouds over the years.

I'm so excited about this card - not only do I love the penguin image ( a clear stamp by Imaginisce), but this card sings !!!

Honest it does - it sings the hit song by Leo Sayer 'You make me feel like dancing'. How awesome is that?

I can't wait to see Shelley's face when she opens it. I know she won't see it on my blog cause she is not 'sad' enough to read card making blogs!!! Lol! She spends her hours on Facebook and Guild Wars - enough said!


Years ago a slimming food company sent musical cards out as part of their advertising campaign. I saved the card knowing it would be useful one day. I must admit I had forgotten about it until doing my big craft room clear out.

Anyway, I took apart the card keeping the musical workings intact. As you can see from the photo at one stage my desk looked like I was making a bomb or something.

I put a double layer of foam pads around the mechanism and then attached a card inner.






I stamped a special sentiment for the inside of the card mounted this on a nestability die cut square and attached to the centre.










My card is for quite a few challenges...




I used this fantastic sketch by Dawny at http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/.

It's on the Valentine theme so it's perfect for the challenge at http://cutecardthursday.blogspot.com/ and also at http://creativeinspirationschallenge.blogspot.com/.



Creative Inspirations is a new Challenge Blog and is being run by one of my MSN group buddies, Jude. It's the first challenge this week and there's a great prize up for grabs too so do pop over and have a look.
Jude says...

"The challenge is "Valentine" but you must use the colour "Black"somewhere on your project. So let your creative juices flow and enjoy to be in with a chance of winning this fab prize ."

Last but not least my card is also for the challenge at http://www.mytimetocraftchallenge.blogspot.com/ where the theme is 'A little bit of sunshine'.

Shelley is certainly that.

Lady in Black...

Obviously I had already completed my card for the challenge at http://cuttlebugchallenge.blogspot.com/ , but when I saw this fabulous deep red embossed card at my favourite market stall yesterday I couldn't resist it.

The card was just perfect to use for distressing. One side of the card is coated in a very deep burgandy shade of red with very detailed embossing. On the reverse the card is a soft 'cardboard' colour and this runs right through the card meaning that when you sand it the 'cardboard' shade pops out.

As the embossing is a almost a minature version of the Diving Swirls embossing folder I thought they would work very well together.

The image of the lady in black is from the Fashion Boutique CD by Joanna Sheen, which is one of my all time favourites - although they are all good.

To draw the design and colours together I used the reverse of the card for matting and layering and for the inner of the little tag which has black organza ribbon running through it.

Distressing your finished Cuttlebug embossing by sanding it really does make the design pop out and it's great fun. Do have a look at the examples by other members of the Cuttlebug Design team and give it a go.

Cuttlebug Day...

Wednesday is the Be Inspired Challenge at http://cuttlebugchallenge.blogspot.com/. This week the theme is distressing your work in any way you like. It may be sanding the embossing as I have done in my card or tearing or you might even want to stamp on your card. I've felt like that more than once in the past ! The choice is yours!

For my card I used one of the folders from the Stitched Squares set to form a quilt like effect. Each square was cut out using my Nestibility die set and then embossed. I found that the squares tended to slip when put through the machine and after a couple of dud quilt pieces I tried out a small piece of tape on the rear of the embossing folder to hole the card in place. It worked a treat.

The heart images and flowers are from a set by
Elusive Images.

I painted them to match the DCWV card and as you can see in the photo I added foam squares to give some depth. I decoupaged the central flowers.

I hope you can see the subtle sparkle - after finishing the painting I added a touch of Sakura Clear Stardust using it scribbled on my acrylic block and then added with a wet brush like water colour paints.



I particularly wanted to create a quilt style card to match up with this wonderful sentiment stamp that I have used on the inside of my card....

I believe it's from a sheet of stamps from the company My Heart Stamps for You - a truly lovely sentiment.

I do hope you will find time to join in the challenge this week and...

Do make sure you visit http://cuttlebugchallenge.blogspot.com/ at the weekend as it is going to be a very exciting one - lots of inspiring projects, prizes and lurve around!!!

Check out the little poster in my sidebar for more information.

Spring is in the air...

Well perhaps not quite yet, but I so wish it was! This gloomy weather and the constant gloomy news everywhere is really getting me down. Good job we can get absorbed in our papercraft and forget about other things for a little while.

This is another Pollycraft download from the Phoebe and Maude Spring download kit at http://www.pollycraftdesigns.co.uk. I just love all the ones I downloaded and I got quite a few as there is a 15% discount if you spend over £10.

The sketch I've used is the one for the challenge for this week at http://sketchsaturday.blogspot.com/. A really great sketch and the design team over there have done some great examples using it.

Materials used:

• Pollycraft download
• Pink and green papers from stash
• Cuttlebug border bar
• Ribbon and white brads from stash
• Wizard Flower die cut

Again my card has both ribbons and flowers on and is ideal as another entry to the challenge at
http://pollycraftchallengeblog.blogspot.com/.

Happy Everything...

Isn't this little character so cute? She is from the Phoebe and Maude Spring download kit at http://www.pollycraftdesigns.co.uk. The trees are in the kit too and a some backing papers - it's a really useful little bundle. I would like to say I coloured the image myself, but I didn't! This is the ready coloured one, but you do get all the characters in both formats - coloured and black and white so you can choose what to do with them. This was my first purchase from Pollycraft, but it will certainly not be my last.

Having the kit meant I could enter the challenge at http://pollycraftchallengeblog.blogspot.com/. This is a fortnightly challenge and this time the theme is flowers and bows. Check out Phoebe's (?) hair!

I used the sketch at http://sketchandstashchallenge.blogspot.com/ for my design and of course my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder sneaked in on the act.

Cuttlebug embossing measuring 14cm x 14cm - clever uh? LOL - the joins are under the tree pieces - I used two pieces of embossing to make the card.

Romance is in the air...

My first romantic card is an acetate one with a central image created using a large gold heart peel off mounted onto cream pearlescent card and embellished with pearls. The sentiment, border and corners are also created using peel offs.

This card fits the challenge at http://artygirlzchallengeblog.blogspot.com/ where the challenge was to use acetate and Cynthia's 'Peel offs' challenge at http://rainbowladyschallengeblog.blogspot.com/ .

My second card was inspired by the amazing tutorial by Lori at http://cuttlebugchallenge.blogspot.com/ . I loved the way she had woven paper strips and then put the finished weaving in a cuttlebug embossing folder. Such a cool idea! Thank you so much Lori.

I really enjoyed doing the weaving and was pleased with my woven mat of different shades of pearlescent card. It looked stunning when it first came out of the folder. However, when it came to making it all up into a card I'm not so impressed with my efforts.

I didn't want to cover the weaving up too much and pfaffed (is that a word?) around for ages trying different things in the middle until I got quite fed up with the card. Does anyone else do that?

Anyway the card did not end up in the bin (it was a close shave) and I will certainly be having another go at this technique and will maybe be more pleased with the finished results of my next effort.

As both my cards have a romantic theme they are perfect for the challenge at http://www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/ ,where the design team want us to use hearts of any kind on our cards and at http://charismacardz.blogspot.com/ where the theme is 'love'.

A great start to Sunday...

Made my early morning cuppa (well not so early this morning, but it is Sunday and that's my excuse) and signed into my blog to find that a new blogging friend Jenn at http://scrappinforlife.blogspot.com/ had given me this lovely award. Jenn is one of the design team at http://cuttlebugchallenge.blogspot.com/ and she does the most amazing scrapbooking.

Anyway when you receive this award you must list your 7 most favourite things and then give this award to 7 other bloggers so here goes:

My 7 Favorite Things

1) My two lovely daughters (excluding the teenage years and any other times when they have driven me absolutely mad!)

2) My friends who are an important and special part of my life (you know who you are).

3) Rubber - STAMPS! and of course clear stamps - well okay any kind of stamps.

4) Lasagne with salad and garlic bread (except for the one in a hotel restaurant in Nerja where the chef thought it was a good idea to use the meatballs from the previous evening's dinner and used no sauce whatsoever). If the lasagne is an English pub version you might as well throw in some chips too. Hmm something tells me this could be the reason I am no longer a size 12!!

5) Being creative - making things.

6) Reading a great book - preferably on holiday with the sun shining and a glass of wine in hand.

7) Watching great movies.

And the AWARD goes to...

1) Irene at http://alloccasionscards.blogspot.com/. Irene does the most classy and beautifully understated cards. Check out her blog.

2) Wendy at http://craftblog.craftybutterfly.co.uk/ who never fails to amaze me with her energy and abundance of cards.

3) Suzanne at http://suzannelily.wordpress.com/ whose work is truly inspirational and who is always willing to share her ideas and help other crafters.

4) Heather at http://ricas-haven.blogspot.com/ - oh her cards and the colours she uses are just scrummy. She is also (with friends) involved in a new challenge blog starting soon so do check it out.

5) Ann at http://craftblogspiritofcreativity.blogspot.com/ who also creates some fantastic cards and is always there to help other crafters. Ann also has a tutorial blog at http://spiritofcreativitytutorialblog.blogspot.com/. She has just completed a write up on ink pads - full of useful info that you may have known and forgotten or perhaps didn't realise. Well worth checking out.

6) Edna at http://www.ednasplace.blogspot.com/ - a very talented lady and a lovely blog to meander through - slowly.

7) Roz at http://rozzyb.blogspot.com/ - really fabulous designs and is also involved in a new challenge blog at http://creativeinspirationschallenge.blogspot.com/ - this starts tomorrow and should be exciting.

There are so many talented crafters out there that I suppose I could go on forever!

Thank you again Jenn for choosing me as one of your winners.