cricut does all the work and I get the credit

Here I cut two simple bags from the cricut expression and layered them up with harlequin papers from K & Co - I think they call it Argyle. Then a simple punched flower and a kid on brad candy drop which I love using and a simple sentiment and it was done. I was caught on the hop for a birthday card and a thank you card and this was what I rustled up quickly.
The other one in lilac and white is embossed using a glue pad and flocking and I am quite happy with it. The bar on the handle runs a little off but maybe....hopefully.... only I see that.
Ideal for a quicky card.

simple quick birthday and thank you cards

Quick wedding favour boxes. These were cut out of mirri card that I bought on 'the shopping channel' back when everyone said 'oh my goodness you cant live without mirri card' ,mmmmmmmmmmm well i seem to be living without it absolutely fine. I dug it out and cut these out with the cricut expression, the cartridge is tags bags boxes and more which i absolutely love and use regularly for little gift boxes and such like.

Can you tell I have been clearing out my craft room and have found lots of stuff I had grown tired of and am trying desperately now to use up.

The little flowers I bought in John Lewis art department. I got a gift card for John Lewis for Christmas and am not a shopper so I simply went to the art dept and filled my boots with flowers and bits n bobs buttons etc and so they came in handy :o)

Guess what they are resting on for the photo? In the name of recycling I used an old black out roller blind from our last house and now I use it to cover my kitchen table to glue and stick when the craft room seems oh so far away (especially if its raining :o*.............its about 30feet from the house in the back garden lol)

to chalk or not to chalk that is the question

This is a scrapbooking page and well it fell foul to the wonder of chalk...............................

I love chalk and could play for hours but here my daughter was looking for something quite mystical and magical for her page and well you can see what the chalk did to a bog standard sepia page with some flocked writing stickers in the corner. I was quite impressed with the outcome. Hope you like it too.

spotty and dotty and flowery too :o)

I like the brown and the pink now but I am not keen on the mess I made of the circle flower thing on the left top corner. I am unsure of it whilst I like the rest of the card. In truth I tried to take it back off but the glue had gone off and so it is there for good. I saw a very similar design on inking idaho and so I thought id give it a go.

The four corners are a bit of a cheat, it is not real brads it is candy drops that I got at the craft show SECC and NEC last year. Tiny paper circles that look just like brads and are so addictive because they do much less damage to the finger tips :o)

I wasnt sure about the pink and brown together but loved the spotty paper so well here it is like it or not.

Now I am on the hunt for a stamping up christmas ornament punch if anyone knows who has them in stock please let me know. I am going to SECC on saturday next week cant wait to see what fun stuff I get to play with for Christmas Cards.

thank you very much!

Cheery chirpy happy thank you card. Simple sweet and relatively easy, especially when you have bought all those aperture cards and have no real reason to use them :o$

The finished card!

I am a bit of a recycling fiend. So..............the buttons were rescued from shirts my husband decided had seen better days and were heading to the big green wheelie bin. The fibres or wool type trim is a piece that came free with a magazine I bought on hols in Canada.............sorry!

The design of each is up to you.

I used the peel offs I already owned. They are something I was keen on when I started crafting but to be honest I think you can overdose on them and now I tend to not to use them although as you can see they do have their uses. ;Op

Hey, well today I am posting a previously made card. I was clearing up months of mess in my craft room and came across this card that I made for my daughter last Christmas. She is every inch the drama Queen and we had been in London to see a show for a little treat and I tried to make her an equally dramatic card for the festive season. I used a sheet of A3 BLACK CARD and I brought out every black silver and grey peel off I owned. I had a template of a theatre mask I had bought and I had sheets of flocked paper and self adhesive velvet papers so I set to work.

MOJO103 mojomonday im having my first try at it!

I have watched with amazement at some of the cards that people can make when they are faced with the challenges like mojomonday etc. SO finally I plucked up the courage to have a little try myself.

I am not saying it is perfect but it is a card I am happy with for my first challenge attempt.

I used labels five from the spellbinders nestabilities range, the largest on the front and the largest and third largest inside.
I then used a sheet of Kanban 300gsm card with paws on it that I saw in a craft shop many moons ago, had no idea why I was buying it but was drawn to the little puppy paws all over it.
The strips are just scraps from my never ending box of little bits I dare not throw away.
Then as a top for the strips I used the Laurence Lowellyn Bowen vellums which are a bit 'out there' but sometimes can just add enough of a touch to make me happy.
The dog stamp came from a set I was given as a gift, daisy and dandylion, candyfloss and such like they are all cute dogs, elephants, and are fun for both adult and child to use. They are by DOcrafts and very affordable. I buy lots of little stamp kits like this to encourage my kids to craft with me and this time I felt compelled to stamp a happy little dandylion on the front with his birdy chum inside.
Finally the ribbon is one inch satin and just from the sewing shop in town nothing fancy and the just for you stamp is one I have picked up somewhere or other no idea where but it seemed to be sentiment enough to finish the card off.

Yes I know I cannot tell you much about the products I used, that tells you I have too many to keep track of, now I just need to make more use of them.

boy was it a cute card!

the baby card

One of our neighbours has just given birth to a beautiful baby boy. An excuse for a card I thought so off I went to find scraps and blue bits and pieces to see what I could come up with that was a little different to the pram stickers and such like that you see about. I brought out a box of dies that have been gathering dust for some time, which is a waste as I have one of the new sizzix express which is so cool. Anyway that is another post so back to the baby card. There was baby boo the cuttle bug die. I found some buff card in the scraps box and a little bit of blue checked gingham in there too. I printed out a congratulations verse on the pc and silvered the edges with an ink pad to make it look a bit more professional. I used sakura pens to colour in bears face and ears. The I cut a piece of the bear again with ecru card and cut it straight across the midriff to look like a nappy. The little piece of gingham became a blanket and a piece of ric rac became a background. Then I rummaged for a piece of ribbon to tie it all together and make my little square I printed on pc into a tag. I found a piece of downtown ribbons and it added a little colour that wasnt baby blue :o)

I think it is ok considering it is made from bits n pieces that were already lying in my craft room. I knew that I was keeping all these bits for something, and that something appeared today!

my kids mean everything to me

My kids are my world and I always need them around me or at least a picture of them with me wherever I go. The photo of C my big girl is the night she was off on her hols to Sharm El Sheikh in July and it makes me so proud to see how she turned out and so sad when your 'baby girl' calls you shortie.
My boys were in the garden when I snapped this. Adam got an inflatable jousting set for his birthday and at first I wasnt sure what he would make of it until of course he realised it was a big red 'neigh neigh'. He watched as it was blown up and then we slipped it over his head with the shoulder straps and off he went. JJ got the blue one on and the two of them ran around the garden for hours and I mean hours shouting neigh neigh and giddy up, what a fabulous toy!
I could not believe how much fun they were having with this single toy, it was a joy to behold. Definately a kodak moment or SIX!

to stickle or not to stickle that is the question

Just thought Id post a couple of thank you cards I made yesterday after I got over my fan flower fever. Lilted back towards the stickles which I find so therapeutic. I never realised a tiny bottle of glitter glue could relieve the stresses and strains of life so well. I own every colour of stickles and have tried the competitors but find the consistency just is not what I am used to. They take a bit of getting used to and you need to be really careful not to snip too much off the nib at first or you will end up with a 'blob' rather than a dot. Trust me I've been there done that and almost lost my way early on casting the stickles aside until I invested in another little bottle of crystal and tried snow on Christmas cards and finally got the hang of it.
Anyway the cards I have posted are a bit of a mix, I bought a pack of six laser cut cards at a craft fair, not quite knowing what I was going to do with them. When I came home I put them on the shelf with the blanks I had made up previously and thought I will think about what to do with them and use them when I am sure.
They lay there fore a few weeks and yesterday I thought, stencil a few flowers, pop on a bit of decoupage and then I can S T I C K L E !!! I always have a box of little pieces of decoupage, another one of my little therapies. I quite happily cut out the pieces when I am in bed watching tv. My hubby works abroad so I get peace to do my own thing and can retreat to the comfort of my bed with my craft lap tray and watch tv and cut simultaneously. My little box of decoupage tricks had just what I needed. A few of the neighbours had handed in pressies for my boy and I tried to use a little decoupage that suited what I thought they were like. One is very much a wine connoisseur and another an avid gardener so I tried to piece the laser card, the decoupage and the stencils to make an appropriate card for them. I have posted a few pics to show you.
I tried not to go overboard with the stickles and only really touched up the stencilling and leaving the decoupage alone unless of course I had snipped a little mistake which I covered up with the stickles.
I only got four made yesterday so I wouldnt say it was a business opportunity for me, I am a bit slow and in no way a production line but after all it was for neighbours and it was a lovely way to spend a quiet sunday afternoon when the heavens had opened and I was confined to my craft room :o)

thank you cards for adams 2nd birthday party

After a recent post on cow town crafts about the fan fold flowers I thought I try a few and use them on the thank you cards I was making for adams 2nd birthday.
I am a bit of a fan of stickles and there are few cards I make that have not been attacked by the stickles, or at very least the pearlidoodles.
So anyway I set out to make 24 thank you cards in one weekend, I was not entirely sure I get them all done as I like to spend a bit of time 'stickling' and can often get carried away 'big time'
well this weekend I got carried away with the fan fold flowers.
I decided to use a variety of colours and to be honest I dragged out a box of scraps I keep. I do not ever like to throw anything away so I keep strips and scraps in a box. These are pieces I have chopped off other sheets most likely 12 x 12 sheets and I am so reluctant to throw them away. Today I found a way to use all these pieces and to make some fab cards into the bargain.
Here are some of the results.
I like the monochrome ones best.

some days my art goes a bit daft!

there are days when my art work is confined to the paper in my sketch pad, then there are days when i get carried away with paper and card and origami galore, hats, bags, dinosaurs, butterflies and more. There there was one day when my daughter said mum I really like tattie bear, do you think you could draw that for me. Tattie bear is 'me to you ' bear and is a lovable fluffie hen toed bear who any girl would love.
So off I went to my craft room and found my paints, yep I was gonna try and replicate tattie bear......................ON HER BEDROOM WALL.........................I had never done a mural before but today is the day I thought.

You can see the results here.
I drew then I painted then I painted some more, then she came home from school and caught me with dust sheets everywhere and her bedroom was was a mass of colour.

She was delighted!
Thank heavens.

adams 2nd birthday and my party bags

well this week saw my youngest son have his second birthday and what a day it was! The bouncy castle was up, the barbeque was fired up and hey ho the rain poured down. Up went the two gazebos and the patio heater inside it to try to dry everyone out and provide a little heat. It was either that or my cream carpets were going to suffer.......................and suffer they did. The kids played games in the playhouse at the bottom of the garden and the women piled into the house to find comfort and the men stayed in the waterproof gazebo not wanting to venture too far from the bar or the grub!
It was interesting to say the least.
After a few goods bursts of rain and the darkness closing in the dry air appeared but too little too late :o(
We decided to graciously retreat the buffet into the house and hope that the burgers would not be cremated by the men who were somewhat innebriated. As luck would have it a team effort by the men saw everyone fed a few sausages a burger and well lets just say what were in a past life chicken kebabs! By the time it was 9pm they were either too drunk to realise whether they were burnt or not OR they had elected to cover anything remotely burnt in ketchup and hope for the best.
Despite all the hurdles it was a great day and the children all had a ball, they were on the bouncy castle through the rain and found great fun in sliding out of the climbing frame into the ball pit which was much more like a paddling pool by then :o)
So a fab time was had by all, photos to follow when I get a minute and have finally cleared up the remnants of party food and plastic glasses from the garden.