My daughter came home after being in America all summer (3 whole months) and I quickly ran up this welcome home banner on my craft robo. I don't know why I have done this before - it was soooo easy peasy lemon squeezy. I am now plotting my Christmas Dekkies in a similar vein.(Excuse the scruffiness of our hallway - it is next on the list for decoration)
The blue paper is Cosmo Cricket girl Friday - Sunday and the pink paper is My Mind's Eye - Garden party - Lush blooms Daisy chain
I've finally found time to upload a photo of a card, I've made a quite a few cards lately that I haven't even had time to snap (Ha! Ha! did you see what I did there?) Quite simple, the blue pearlescent card has been cuttlebug embossed with the spots and dots folder, the orange card has been run across with matching ink using the Sandy Shells wheel thingy from Stampin' Up!(Click on the photo to see the design more clearly) Mr Crab has been stamped straight onto red card using the Crab and Co set (also from SU), cut out and mounted on foam pads with added googly eyes. The sentiment is also part of Crab and co. The shells etc glued to the bottom were left over from a Lakeland cardmaking kit I bought. Quick and easy, I may make a few more in the same straight forward style. Do you see the dragon in the background? I'm just waiting to get some gold card to finish it. It is one of the many Craft Robo templates on the brilliant Just Cutters CD 2
You might have to click the button twice to get the video going
Last Wednesday I met my friend Ailsa in town so we could have a mooch round the new Cath Kidson shop that has opened there. It's all lovely stuff but bit too pricey for my liking. For example they had hot wheat bags at £18 - I have been pricing them because I had a slight accident with mine recently (I had gone to bed and was feeling a bit chilly so called down to my husband who was still downstairs to ask him to pop it in the microwave for me, and just lobbed it over the bannisters. The bag split, there was wheat all over the shop and the subsequent vacuuming warmed me up sufficiently that I no longer required the hot wheat bag) Anyway hot wheat bags anywhere else are about £6, so I maintain my position that CK are a bit pricey.
We then went and had tea and cakes in "The Mock Turtle" which is a wonderful old fashioned teashop with homemade cakes, proper tea in a brown betty teapot (tea leaves, strainer,the lot) It is a wonderful experience but not to be repeated too frequently as it is hazardous to the waistline. 
We then trotted a long to the new(ish) library because Ailsa hadn't ever seen it which is where this post becomes relevant to my card blog. I bought the card in the video for my niece who has her 6th birthday tomorrow. I was going to make her one but thought that this looked far more fun - a bit pricey at £4.50 bt worth it for the novelty I think. I did make a card withmy craft robo using a pattern from the Just Cutters CD, for my daughter to give her but the photo doesn't show it off to its best advantage, and it has been posted now so no time to re-shoot. Please excuse the background noise to the vid, I had the telly blaring away watching "Grand Designs" and the strange noise at the end is a creaking floorboard as I walked across to turn off the camera!
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 :)
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!
