It's three chuffing weeks till Christmas.....

.....and I am making cards like it's going out of fashion but I haven't got time to photograph or upload any of them so I will bid my loyal (but silent) following "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New year" and see you in 2008 xxxx

100 not out!

I work in an Old Folks home and one of our residents will be 100 years old tomorrow so I've made him this card - I had some blue ribbon that would have gone a treat with the blue pearlescent card but I wanted it to be quite plain. Despite its simple look it's taken me *$%!!@# ages to do it, hours and hours. I was going to make a few more Pudsey cards but I can't be bothered now, I'm knackered (I'm only 50, I don't think I'll have the energy to reach 100)

Children in need

I am enjoying making cards for non traditional occassions and this one is no exception. It will be "Children in Need" day next Friday and I couldn't resist making a Pudsey Card. All cut out on the craft robo, the bandage is using Pink Petticoat Lola's Boudoir paper and the white highlights are a sakura souffle pen. Not sure if the googly eye gives him the right expression or not but it's all glued down now!

Merry Wishes

The spring card seems to be popular at the moment so I thought I'd have a go at one. I used a craft robo template from Patricia at UKS cut out on Pink Petticoat doodle-iscious Christmas and Christmas Rainbow papers in Poppy and Gold, with the central image stamp from the same collection. I have used a scallop punch and also craft robo shapes from Cuddly Buddly to make the scalloped layers. I also pierced small holes in the gold scallop using my pokie tool, but it doesn't really show up in the photo that well. I rather like the way this has turned out.

Fall Back

The clocks go back this weekend in the UK so winter draws on. I was inspired to make an autumnal card using the free Pink Petticoat papers that you can get when you subscribe to the newletter. The main focus of my card is actually a web graphic (a linkware gift celebrating Halloween) from Mulberry Street Graphics but I sought the permission of the artist, Sadie, to use it as a printable. The main image and the brown mat have been cut out in a square scalloped shape on my Craft Robo using designs purchased from Cuddly Buddly

October Octogons

Here's a couple of cards I ran up on my craft robo using a template from UK Scrappers designed by Etui. The cutout is surprisingly robust despite looking so delicate, but even so, being an incompentant fumble fingered fool, I managed to rip a part of the design when pushing out the waste on the turquoise card. But as they say , nothing is wasted in card making so I snipped out the centre and hid the gap with these enormous petal shapes, which despite what the photo shows, match the card colour perfectly. On the yellow one I have succumbed again and used a gold peel-off "Happy Birthday" Even though I am a bit snooty about peel-offs, I am beginning to warm to them and think that maybe they do have a role to play :)The inserts are cut from Pink Petticoat doodle-iscious papers. You will be able to see the cut out design far better if you click on the photo for a super-duper enlarged version.

Happy Birthday Ailsa

I have used another of Shirley Anne's wonderful templates (which can be found at UKS) to make a card for my friend Ailsa whose birthday it is tomorrow. However I don't think I made a good colour choice really and it doesn't suit the template. I should have made the leaves in a different colour and I've used a peel-off "Happy Birthday" which normally I wouldn't touch with a barge-pole, (I got the sheet of peel-offs free with a rubber stamp I bought) because I cut out the happy birthday that is part of the template in the same shade of blue and there wasn't enough contrast. I've no idea where I got the wooden, gold painted stars I've put in the centre of the flowers. I've got a HUGE plastic bag full of them that I seem to have had forever (possibly from before I even started cardmaking!)Still it's too late now to start re-doing it all. It is also my dog's birthday tomorrow but she isn't getting a card, I think she'd prefer a biscuit. The papers are Pink Petticoat as yesterday.

Glamorous Grannies

One of my internet chums Pam has just become a Grandma for the first time last week, and another, Darylynn, expects Granny-dom to be granted any moment. The babies are both boys which gave me an excuse to use this wonderful craft robo template by Shirley Anne of UK Scrappers. The papers I've used are Pink Petticoat Doodle-iscious Rainbow in Duckegg Blue. I don't know of anyone expecting a girl (or even anyone else who is expecting) but I have got to try out the matching "Baby Girl" template by Shirley Anne really soon. It is a breeze to cut out and assemble.

Take Three!

I coloured three of these stamped images from Penny Black all exactly the same, using watercolour paints and an Aqua Flo pen but decided I wanted to use them all differently. The two A5 cards feature background papers from Cinnamon Joe Studio, Ho Ho Ho range because they have the same mix of red, blue and green on them as I painted the images with. The landscape A5 card also has a lovely Christmas treeline ribbon that came from Liberty.The two portrait cards both have the cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder used on the backgrounds. On the larger card I embossed onto a blue vellum and onto the small one I used a blue glitter card
which I cut notches into to support the stamped image. I also cut notches into the base card to support the glitter card. As usual I haven't added a sentiment.

Steel Magnolias

I was given a pile of stamped images by Linda featuring various Magnolia stamps. (I'd never thought of stamping up some of my images for someone else, what a brilliant way to share - my card isn't as nice quality as Linda's though so I will hold off on that until I get some like hers) This one is Tilda. I wasn't too sure about my colouring in as it is very bold and bright. I had to team it with some bright paper I found in a free digi scrappping kit here The Fuschia Pink and the pale blue in the paper were a perfect match. Anyway it has grown on me overnight and I am now quite pleased with it. I haven't added a sentiment as I'm not sure yet how I'll use it, but I'll keep a scrap of the blue mat to tie any future additions back in. I'm thinking probably I will add a file tab at the side so as not to obscure the paper. There will be more Magnolias to come.

Intermittent Posting

Because I'm not a regular poster, I feel like I'm wasting the time of people who pop in to see if I've updated only to find absolutely nothing again ...... so I'd like to draw your attention to RSS (Really Simple Syndication) for those of you who aren't aware of it. All you have to do is click a few links and there's no signing up for anything. I did a tutorial here that explains it (I hope) quite well, and then you will be able to see on your own computer when I've updated. I have loads of blogs on RSS so it really cuts down on visits because I only need to visit the ones that have updated, perfect for the busy blogger about town :) RSS Tutorial

Boo!

I picked up this wonderful Craft Robo template of a Halloween card by Susan F at UKS I was originally going to back the cut out with orange but the I found this amazing luminous green paper at 3p an A4 sheet in my local Art supply shop.

More Frillies!

Following on from the last post I seem to have a lot of PP undies in my scraps file. I need to dig a bit deeper, but at least it feels good to be making cards again.

Oo la la!

I keep thinking I haven't got time to make cards and last night was no exception, I was whining on to myself that I wanted to watch "Brothers and Sisters" and I couldn't make cards if I did that. I've tried making stuff before in front of the TV and I keep having to trot off to get this and that and it stops being enjoyable. Then I thought I could do something if I tried hard enough. So I pulled a folder out of my craft stuff cupboard with scraps of paper and various half started projects tucked away in it and thought I could try and make something (anything) using only what was in the folder. And these two cards are what I came up with, not too shabby considering the restraints I put on myself. I did half compose another two that I was quite pleased with but the images I chose for the central focus were just off slightly colour-wise and I couldn't bring myself to glue it all into place :) .What I particularly like about this little exercise is that the images and papers are quite old. In crafting (as in much of life) everyone seems obssessed with having the latest trend in everything. The newest rubber stamps, the most recent embossing folders etc. etc. I like what I like and it doesn't matter if it's last seasons (or even the season's before) Pink Petticoat image stamp or the most up-to-date ones, I am going to use it only if I like it. I think this is why I have way less stuff than most crafters I know, I'm simply not "A dedicated follower of fashion!"

Ooooh, Arrrrgh Mrs.

Well it's that time of year again, how quickly it rolls around. Yes tomorrow will be September 19th and of course that means it's "International Talk like a Pirate day" I shan't sleep a wink tonight, I'm so excited. Needless to say I couldn't let the day pass without making a card to mark the occasion, I'm only sorry I didn't have time to make them for all my friends and family. Next year I will plan ahead and be more organised. Anyway I used the Pirate Bear Printables set from Cuddly Buddly, scalloping the edge of the top layer with my corner rounder punch. The sentiment was printed directly onto the backing paper using Paint Shop Pro, adding a 3D drop shadow in a darker toning shade of blue.

This little piggy went home!

I'm usually in such a hurry to try something out that I never seem to upload a polished finished project and this little piggy is no exception, I'd like to have embellished him a bit more. Linda recommended a site called A time for crafting where they have fab templates, and as soon as I saw this one I couldn't wait to cut him out. I have inked round his face and snout with a darker pink than the card to add a bit of definition, popped on some googley eyes and written "Hogs & Kisses" on the inside. I stuck the face on at a jaunty angle as it gave him a slightly quizzical look. Next time I use this template I will draw his trotters in as well, actually I think I will use this template over and over again, it is so adorable.

Oh Tannenbaum!

I ordered the new Pink Petticoat doodle-icious Christmas and Rainbow collections in the week and I thought they were just the thing to pair with this beautiful filigree Christmas tree craft robo template from UKS. I dotted the tree with loads of Papermania adhesive gemstones so represent fairy lights (I've actually stuck on a few more - loads more! - since I took the photo) I am well pleased with how it turned out although the delicacy of the cut-out made it tricky to adhere to the card. TheCountryRose who designed the template has shared an angel and a reindeer design in the same filigree style, I think you may be seeing more in the next couple of days.

Take two.......

I had forgotten about this card and just found a photo of it. It was one of the first things I made on the Craft Robo and I used Microsoft Clipart for the design. I cut out the design in card to start with put realised it wouldn't be easy to stick onto the base card as the design was so spindly. I had bought some cheap "Peel and stick" metallic paper in Wilkinsons and I tried it with that, turning the paper upside down so that the robo cut through the backing sheet first. It was so easy to just peel off the backing and stick it to the card. The letters were cut using my Sizzix alapha bars on scraps of the "peel & stick" - not really a good match for the design but it was my first attempt :)

Pumpkin Carving

A few years ago, my friend Sadie sent me some white pumpkin seeds and I managed to grow two decent sized pumpkins (I'm no Alan Titchmarsh so even that was a miracle)It was round the time that the film "Wallace & Grommit - The curse of the Were Rabbit" was at the cinema and while browsing the website I found some Pumpkin Carving templates of W & G and set to, carving out the pumpkins for Halloween I was actually well pleased with my efforts, especially when the trick or treaters recognized them. It occurred to me the other day that Pumpkin Carving and silhouettes for the Craft Robo need to have similar characteristics, so I quickly rustled up the attached, just as an experiment. I think if you were going to make a card you would have to use just one character as you couldn't make the templates any smaller (This is an A4 sheet) However at this time of year there are loads of Pumkin Carving templates on the web just waiting to be plundered and used on the Craft Robo, I feel a project coming on.

Little Boxes on the hillside

I haven't had much time to be crafty but I whipped these little boxes up in no time at all. Back in the dim and distant past when I first wanted to have a go at card making there was so little equipment available and I became obssessed with the idea of getting a ribbler. No, it's not something saucy you have to buy at Anne Summers or a villian from Batman, it's a little instrument with two ridged rollers that you feed a piece of card or paper between , rolling it through and as the paper emerges from the other side of the rollers it is corrugated. I had to have one, but in fact I have rarely used it so this project was a chance to dust the cobwebs off it and actually get some value out of it. I used a tutorial here which was excellent (You have to scroll down a bit to get to the right section) but wouldn't they be wonderful for putting little Wedding favours in or at the Christmas lunch table instead of crackers. They took me about five minutes to make both of them and best of all I got to use my ribbler.

Robo Cop rules!

I had a birthday in July with an "0" at the end and my husband bought me a Craft Robo machine which I have been slowly getting to grips with and there has been a lot of experimenting with paper and confetti strewn across the floor and very little cardmaking however I am quite pleased with these two cards made from the same template by Paula Pauscale on UKS I did make the mistake with the green one of fiddling about with it after I had stuck it down so I wasn't able to make all the changes I wanted to, and it looks a little unfinished. It was for my daughter to celebrate her successful 'A' level results and she doesn't seem to mind the "experimental" nature of it. My MIL gave her a generous cheque when she heard the news of her results so the pink card is for her and is a little bit more polished although I have stuck the inside of the "a" in Nanny upside down, but I won't dwell on that too much. I do like blogger but in order to make the photos look nice if you want to display more than one you have to have quite a lot of text and to be honest I haven't really got that much to say so I think I will tell you a story I heard on Terry Wogan the other day. Apparently this chap went into a bookshop and asked the assistant if she had "Order of the Phoenix" She tapped a few keys on the computer and finally turned to him and said "Nothing here, when did you put your order in Mr. Phoenix?" Right that should do it for balancing p the text and photos for this entry. See you next time!

Crab & Company

It seems like an age since I posted on my card blog - I havn't stopped making or receiving hand-made cards but real life has got in the way of me updating these creations to the interwebbie doo dah. My friend Sandra had a knee operation last Monday (23rd July) which caught me hop (did you see what I did there, I'm sooo funny) because for some reason I thought the op was on the 23rd August so this is not as good as I wanted it to be. I saw someone use the crab & company stamp for a similar card on SCS so I pinched the caption and the idea of tying a little piece of gauze around one of his knees (Thank you Jean for raiding Boots the Chemist first aid kit to get me the little scrap I needed) Normally I would print off little bits of background paper or the sentiments using the computer but beacause I've had PC problems (again - sigh!) I had to rely on "real stuff" for a change. I'd like to re-do it and make it a bit neater but it seems a bit pointless. The chances of knowing someone else with a knee operation in the near future are slightly remote. I love this little crab character though and have used him quite a lot recently as he is very versatile and I like playing up to the fact that we live beside the seaside, beside the sea. I have made two cards for people leaving their jobs (Shore will miss you) which I forgot to take photos of, and this birthday card for my husband. There are so many ways you can use him. I have a few of cards in mind to make with Mr. Crab , a Thank you card and a "Congratulations on passing your driving test" card and a "50th Birthday" card. Also I have a sneaky suspicion he may make an appearance on my Christmas cards too!

Golf Thank You

My husband was invited to a "Men's Invitational" golf match on Saturday by a friend at another club and asked me to make a thank you card. I used the Cuddly Buddly Country Gents Golfer as the main element and the Freebie trophy from the same site that I coloured silver/grey and threaded on ribbon through the handles. The golfer is stuck on with foam pads and stands proud of the card but you can't see this in my photo. It probably doesn't look like it but it took me a couple of hours to make this card, although I was trying to make dinner at the same time. Not one of my better efforts but it'll do.

Ribbons, luverly ribbons.

Every time I go out to the shops I invariably come home with a yard or two of ribbon. I have started to haunt the haberdashery (notions) departments of shops with looking for something new and different to feed my craving. In the scale of things it isn't a bad addiction to have, it's cheap and it doesn't harm anyone and I know that other people have far more than me (It has never got to the stage where I have had to buy a spool - I think once you've got to this stage you need to start a 10 step programme ) The way I store it looks a bit messy but I quite like it like this because then you can dig down into the depths and discover something you have forgotten about. Even as I was writing this I remembered that I had bought some ribbon with Elephants embroidered on it and it wasn't in the box so I couldn't rest until I had found it.

Christmas ATC's

I have made ten little ATC's all the same as this adorned with a Christmas Pudding. As before I am going to put them onto small (A6) cards as toppers. You can see the scale of them as this one is leaning up against my mouse. I toyed with the idea of adding a little bit of ribbon to it (I love ribbon) but decided in the end that "Less is More"

Fathers Day Card

I still have a couple of cards sent to me that I need to put up but here is one made by me at last :) As Fathers Day is coming up on Sunday I made this for my daughter to give my husband. I really feel that the sentiment should have been a bit lower down but I made a bit of a hash of the scalloped edging so had to cover up the mistake with something. There are lots of tutorials telling you how to make the little origami shirt out there on the web but this is the one I used which has lots of photos and makes it really easy to follow. The papers are Basic Grey Blush 6 x 6

Rose Card by Linda

This fabulous card was given to me by Linda, a friend I made through a card making forum and who subsequently turned out to live about a mile away from me :) I love it, it is so elegant and simple and looks sensational. I wanted to take a second photo to show how the gold card twinkles in the light, it's very subtle but when you see it it makes quite an impact, but it's difficult to get a picture that does it justice. In another forum I visit when someone copies someone elses idea for a card they call it CASE-ing (Copy And Selectively Edit ) I am soooo going to CASE this idea (Doesn't it sound nicer than pinch?)

Computer drawn Card from Toni

Toni sent me the lovliest card adorned with her own computer drawn graphics, I love it, the figure has that Bella/Lola-Rose feel to it with the match-stick arms. The supercute thing is that as the card was a thank you note for sending Toni a copy of "Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death" the figure (Toni) is holding a copy of that exact book. Great attention to detail Toni :)

I have some more hand crafted cards that I have received from Pam, Sadie and Linda but I am in such disarray (no change there then) I need to find them and photograph them. I hope to do this over the next couple of days.

Green Flutterby

I really don't seem to find the time to do much card making - I think it's because I haven't got room to spread all my stuff out. And when I do try to do something I end up perched on my bed trying to cut or colour and have to keep trotting off to get the bits I need which rather sucks the fun out of it. You can see all the squalor of crafty bits on top of my chest of drawers in the photo. Anyway I have been making some ATC's over a period of time (perched on my bed) and yesterday finally got round to finishing them. I was then stuck with the dilemma of what to do with them so I decided to mount them onto cards. They are not the best but I am quite pleased with the way they turned out.
It was a learning experience and I think I will do better next time. I quite like the idea of ATC's as toppers that you could just make and store and then pop them on a card when required.

The C's won the day

Thanks for voting everyone - it was a landslide victory for card C. so it has been finished off with an insert and popped in an envelope - I shall let you know how it was received. Angela makes beautiful cards herself so it's always a bit stressful sending one of my cards to her. As you can see from the inside of the card pictured on the left, I used a slightly bigger scottie dog die cut than the one I mentioned previously (The same size as a McVities Chocolate Hobnob) Thank you for the comments regarding the problems enlarging photo B. I had the same problem and don't really know what the answer is. When I told Holly the results of the votes she was surprised that Card A didn't get one single vote - although her personal choice was C. she thought A was better than B IRL (In real life). I haven't done much card making in the last couple of days but I have tried making some ATC's (Artists trading cards) but I haven't finished them yet and I think I would be too shy to trade my paltry efforts anyway.

Angela's Birthday

It's my cousin Angela's birthday on Wednesday and when I got my tiny little scottie dog die cuts from eBay this morning, that was the jumping off point for creating her card. She loves Radley handbags (who doesn't?) and I thought a card featuring a handbag and the Radley logo (a little black scottie dog) would fit the bill. Here is a photo of the die cuts. I have placed them next to a McVities chocolate hobnob to give a sense of scale.

However the best laid plans of mice and men etc. I went off at a tangent finally producing 3 cards, all with handbags but none of them using the scottie dog. I think once I've chosen which one to send, I will put the scottie dog inside with the phrase "Hope your birthday is bags of fun" Anyway If you'd like to help me choose which card to send her there is a little poll over on the side. Cast your votes now. (Voting is now over and the poll has been removed)

On Card A I have used a Happy Birthday and small mosaic cuttlebug folder to emboss and coloured in the image with a sakura glaze pen in turquoise and pebeo gloss touch in yellow.

Card B Uses Paper from Lola's Boudoir and the image stamp is coloured in with a sakura glaze pen in red and pebeo gloss touch in pink.

Card C uses pink daisy paper from the Blooming Doodles collection and the centres of the flowers are picked out with PaperMania adhesive stones in Pink.

All 3 use the Blooming Doodles handbag image stamp from Pink Petticoat.

Lola Rose

I have decided to re-start my card blog using Blogger (I was fiddling about learning how to use it to help a friend who wants to start blogging) I really like it so I've decided to stick with it. Anyway my exciting card news is that I sent two of my photos to the Pink Petticoat Customer Gallery and they are on display there. Here are the two cards - Carol's Birthday Card and a Thank You card for Linda . I need to crack on with a few more card projects this week, more birthdays more thank yous. I don't know how some people find the time to make so many cards, I think they must be born organised because I know I always feel guilty and that I should be doing something else :)