CardMakers United - Challenge 3

Just been told I won the latest challenge on CardMakers United 'Windows and Doors' with the New Home Congrats card which can been seen below. Ok, so there were only four entries but all a very high standard and I am still amazed and thrilled to win. It would be great to have more people join these challenges - (sometimes we get prizes!) so pop over and have a look. Challenge 4 is 'Shoes', one of my favourite things, so why not have a go -you have until 14th October.

This week's DCM Challenge is 'Frames' and I just put my effort into the bin! :-( I thought I had a good idea but it didn't work, so back to the drawing board for that one - watch this space.

I did manage to complete a card for my DS's girlfriend,

Bex, who is 19 next week. Just have to do one for her from

DS now and better be quick to get them there before the RM strikes.

The background paper and resin circles are Anna Griffin,

the flocked chipboard letters are ATD and are really scrummy IRL. The furry 'Love Album' is from Mei Flower, as is the girl dangling from a brad. I wanted a hint of the 'rock chic' but not too much!

Oh, I nearly forgot....talking of competitions, there are some running on Charmed if anyone's interested with some fab prizes.

OK, back to the frames..................

TAGGED!

Well I haven't had time for any challenges today but am delighted to have discovered I have been tagged by my amazingly talented friend Louly.

4 Places I have worked
Department of Health & Social Security
Yorkshire Bank
My own shop
Holy Trinity Senior School

4 Places I have lived
Burnley, Lancashire
Morcambe, Lancashire
Nottingham
Halifax, West Yorkshire

4 Places I have visited
France
Canary Islands
Spain
Cyprus

4 Favourite foods
Anything Italian
Roast beef and Yorkshire Pudding
Anything chocolatey
Egg and Chips (well I could have lied and said fruit & vegetables)

4 Places I would rather be
Birmingham (only because my son is at Uni there and I miss him)
Cyprus (with my lovely friends)
Ally Pally (tomorrow)
In a hot bath with lovely Molton Brown aromas and candlelight but not too bothered about the champagne.

4 blogging buddies - because I love visit all their blogs
Tee
Andrea
Paula
Deb

Vrooooooom!

The thing about these challenges is that they
make me create. For some strange reason I
don't feel guilty neglecting other things when
I am doing them either.

Had a fabulous day at the Papercrafting Extravaganza in Harrogate on Saturday....all my favourites were there including Craftwork Cards (check our their new range of glitter papers - WOW!) and Blonde Moments. Spent a fortune but also got some fab bargains, for instance, 50 sheets of Basic Grey 12x12 for £10 - that's just 20p a sheet! Fell in love with the new 'Love, Elsie' range too - it's luscious! Also on Saturday got a delivery of Heidi Grace from Charmed - those flocked papers are soooooo tactile.

Back to Daring CardMakers 'little extra'........
Vroooooooom.................
Cars, Boats, Trains & Planes is the theme for our Little Extra challenge this week. A good chance to stock up on kids cards and make a few of those poor, unloved "cards for men", maybe? How about "congratulations on Passing your Driving test" or "Got your Wings" for newly qualified pilots? - ok so we may be reaching a bit far with that one, but you never know! Basically, what we'd like you to do is put some transport on your cards this week, how you do it is up to you!

I used Daisy D's papers, Herbanella car sticker, and 7 Gypsies rub-ons with various brads, ribbons attached with fastenator staples and one of my favourite Heidi Grace stamps. I used scalloped scissors for the edge and inked the edges. Hope I rose to the challenge!

DCM Challenge - 'Charity'

This week's Friday DCM Challenge is an interesting one
and I hope I will be allowed this as I didn't exactly follow it to the letter. Here's this weeks dare:

'Let's go Charity shopping or Op shopping (as we call it in Australia)
I DARE you to visit your local Charity Shop & make someone else's TRASH your STASH! .........and make a GORGEOUS card from what you find. You'll be amazed at the special little treasures you'll find if you only take the time to look with CREATIVE EYES.'

I am reallly short of time this weekend as I am going to the Papercrafts Extravaganza tomorrow in Harrogate, (well, someone has to!)and I'm supervising a Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition on Sunday, so my CREATIVE EYES headed upstairs to the spare room where there is a bin bag full of clothes destined for the charity shop when I get round to it. I eventually spotted a t-shirt with loads of buttons on it then kicked myself for not thinking of using them earlier! Sorry, I haven't a clue where the background paper came from, but green behind the flower is embossed Bazzil, the blue ribbon is recycled from a shirt, I used a Prima flower and added two punched ones and a button in the centre. The silver sparkles are glitter glue and 'Birthday Wishes' is peel offs. I used various bits of 'Metal Hardware' (heart, arrows, rivets and nameplate), brads and inked lots of edges before finishing off with hand drawn stitching.
Thanks DCM darers for helping me to find loads of buttons!!!

CCC Challenge 19 - Altered Tin

This challenge was set by Sarah in New Zealand, a member
of the Charmed Cards and Crafts Forum.......

'Okay so the challenge is to decorate a paint tin or a milk tin...
you know those old school milk tins??? any shaped tin as
long as it isnt a small one, anyways you can do what ever you
like with it, it has to have some form of ribbon or fibre on it and
that is it - the rest is up to you. You can do it on what ever you
like...I look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with.'

My first attempt at altering....this tin originally contained Prima flowers and is going to hold small pieces of ribbon in it's new incarnation.

I used Adirondack shell pink paint, Papermania stickers, buttons, lots of ribbon and glitter strips on the lid - all in one of my favourite colour combinations.

I am pleased with the result and think I may have to look for other things to alter!

Doors and Windows - CMU Challenge

Well I must be getting better as my interest in crafting is returning, helped by the arrival of a little parcel from Karen at 'Charmed' this morning.

Then I had a surprise phone call from Karen - it was really nice to talk to her for the first time and put a voice to the face! She told me that another package is on it's way today which contains lots of new Heidi Grace papers and 'stuff' - if you haven't already seen (or bought!) this range check it out - it's fab!!!!

Here is the latest challenge from CardMakers United.

"I thought we could have a "doors and windows" theme. Open to interpretation of course, but could include front doors, shop doors/windows, wardrobe doors, winter windows, stained glass windows etc. "

(Karen may recognise this house idea!)
Papers are BG Mellow, the house is cut from Bazzil with
brads used to outline the roof, I made the felt flowers using a punch and added buttons and the rub-ons are BG and I love them - they are so cute. Just noticed that the girl in the doorway looks a bit 'evil' in the photo, but in real life she's is really quite cute - honest!

GO FOR GOLD!

Today's 'Little Extra' from DCM is:

This time we are giving you just One Word as the inspiration for your card making and that word is GOLDEN You can use the word in any way you like - the word itself doesn't even have to be on the card, for instance you could make a card in golden shades, or maybe inspired by the seasons of Spring or Autumn which both feature lots of golden colours. Or maybe you could make a card to celebrate a Golden Anniversary, and of course Gold is a great colour for Christmas cards.....It's up to you - just go for Gold.

Although all the gold looks silver on the photo, I promise I used gold mirri card, gold peel offs, gold brads, a gold coin, gold ink and made a gold tassel.
I don't know why I went Oriental, I don't even particularly like it, but there we go, and the peel offs and papers needed using!

Not been blogging for a few days as I feel ill and am dosed up with paracetamol and not even up to crafting, but at least DCM got me a little bit interested - thanks! Back to bed now for me :-(

In A Word

Friday's challenge from Daring CardMakers is.........

'This week I dare you to use a Word as the main focal point to your card. It can be a name, a greeting or just a word that inspires you. You can use other text but only one word as a main embellishment. So dig out your dictionaries, die cutters, alphabet stamps, rubons or download a funky font and show us what you can do! The design team have come up with some fabulous creations to inpsire you.'

Papers are Basic Grey (yet again!!!) which I have used in a patchwork effect with hand drawn stitching. I then randomly applied rub-ons, epoxy, metal and ribbon and suspended the heart from ribbon using brads and eyelets.

Thanks DCM for another great challenge and for taking my mind off the fact that my eldest DS is leaving for university tomorrow and I am feeling really sad, even though I am happy for him, if you know what I mean. Anyway tomorrow holds a trip
to Birmingham and lots of tearful goodbyes!

Anyway, I am going to console myself by buying some of the new Heidi Grace papers which should be showing on Charmed website very soon as Karen has announced their arrival today. These papers are absolutely lush itself and I dare anyone not to love them. Hurry up and get them uploaded - please, beautiful, wonderful, darling Karen!

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Leeds United just scored again.......well, that cheered me up! We are rockin', c'mon Leeds!

Big and Little

Today's DCM 'Little Extra' was 'Big and Little' with freedom to choose the rest.....

Big & Little We'd like you to use items in pairs of Big and Little - so you need to have both sizes on your card ie big & little buttons, big & little die cuts, big & little hearts, big & little circles etc The theme of your card can be whatever you like this time, so that's nice of us, isn't it?

I needed yet another Thank You card so used the challenge for a 'real' purpose this week. I used big flowers and little flowers and big brads and a little brad. The paper is BG (not again!!) Oh Baby! Girl, the flowers are a mixture of Pocket Full of Posies, die cuts and punched and the chip sentiment is Brenda Pinnick. Well, at least it's a bright cheerful card!

Christmas in September?

For the first time ever I am enjoying making Christmas cards - that must be thanks to Daring CardMakers challenge last week! I have gone a bit more traditional with this one, but was drawn to some of the BG Fruitcake papers on my last shopping spree (there are some scrummy designs in the range). I also love these Craftybitz metal embellishments and found that the flower garland I bought at G-Mex matched perfectly. Decided to enter this in one of the competitions at Charmed Cards & Crafts - www.charmedcardsandcrafts.co.uk if anyone wants to have a go (great prizes on offer).

Feeling a bit sad at the moment as eldest DS is off to Birmingham University this weekend. Will really miss him :-(

Been a tough day at work today, emotionally draining - all I can say is if we think we have problems there is always someone worse off.

Oh well, tomorrow's another day!

Tearing Purple Holes for Christmas

Friday's Daring CardMakers challenge got done on Sunday this week...working is soooooo inconvenient! Here is the challenge -

So, we'd like you to make and show a Christmas card which incorporates the following:
Some Paper Tearing
The colour Purple
AND
It has to have at least one hole somewhere in the design!
......BUT by "hole" we don't just mean the sort of hole you poke a brad through, or the holes you make for/with stitching - or even the hole you make to put an eyelet in - although you can use all those techniques too if you want.
We want you to be a bit/lot more inventive and creative than that, and we think you'll be able to come up with some wonderful ideas for making cards to fit this recipe.

The first card has 'purple' background paper with ready made snow, but I heat embossed the snow with holographic powder as I did with the metal 'Christmas' tree and the edge of the 'torn' white flock paper for the snow at the bottom of the card. The flower 'hole' is punched (don't have a snowflake punch yet!) and the snowman sticker is mounted onto white card and suspended from the brad to give movement. I then attached some white angel hair to the back of the aperture, printed 'Let It Snow' onto the white flock and added the greeting on an arrow from DCWV Rock Star Chipboard.

As I wasn't impressed with the first card at the time, I decided to have another go at this challenge. I downloaded some free Pink Petticoat papers a while ago and I really love these funky Christmas papers.

I 'tore' the 'purple' 'Christmas' tree shape, added some ribbon brads and made 'holes' with my ribbon punch to thread the bottom ribbon through. I finished off by inking the edges using alternate purple and green which gave a lovely effect which doesn't show up too well in the photograph. A really quick and simple card to make, which could be adapted in lots of different ways, but I like it because of the colours and it isn't 'traditional Christmas'.

My Baby is All Grown Up!

All nice and smart for his first day at High School. Came home with muddy knees though and minus his coat!!!!!-found this morning in the Maths room! He's not impressed with the homework but seems to have settled in really well - it's a massive change for an 11 year old.

Been back at work for two days now and it seems like I've never been away. The new Year 7's are sooooo sweet (well, some of them are!) - give them a couple of weeks and they will all be cheeky little monsters. It is lovely though seeing our students grow up and progress to whatever life holds for them and knowing you made just a little difference.

Going to think about CardMakers United 'recycling challenge' now - Lou's example is fab and I don't know how I can even get close to that! May have to root through the dustbins.......now where did I put those rubber gloves?

Today's Daring CardMakers 'something extra' challenge is.....

"You Big Softie" We want you to use something soft on your card feathers, velvet paper, fluffy fibresall that soft, strokable stuff counts for this one and that's it, easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy!

I like using feathers on cards and I made a similar card before which my friend 'nicked' off with, she liked it so much. I used my PI fan stamp, embossed with Blonde Moments Suet Pudding then scored and folded the red fan and snipped the lilac one to lift alternate sections. I then attached the feathers, adding gems at the bottom. The backing paper is BM too and the stamped scrolls are Heidi Grace stamps. I inked the edges of the card with chalk ink and voila!

Well, it's the last day of the holidays for us, back to school tomorrow. Crafting will have to move way down the list of priorities when I am back at work and studying again, but I did manage to get time to make a couple of cards yesterday.

The Flower Shop card uses BG papers, Prima Crazy Daisies and MM and K & Co rub-ons and various brads. The canopy is simply scored and scalloped on the edge and looks really effective IRL.

The second one uses two backing papers, the green one is absolutely lush and I can't remember what it is or where I bought it but I would love some more if anyone knows. The lilac one is a Pink Petticoat free download and the scrolls just screamed out for a flower! I made the flower with strips of organza ribbon glued together with pva and snipped at the edges. The remainder of the flower is built up using various die cuts and punches and a white heart brad. I love these colours.

Off to the barbers now for the regulartory pre-school haircut for DS who moves up to High School tomorrow. Where did my baby go?????

Just got round to the DCM Friday Challenge, having spent the day at G-Mex . Came back absolutely shattered and laden with bags of fab new stash. There were actually some really good bargains - some Junkitz and Rob & Bob at half price and some divine rub-ons (my favourite at the moment). Saw Dawn, JJ & heavily pregnant Amy, Stephenie Weightman, Wendi Rhodes, Audrey Sibbert, the Glitter Girls - they were all there and, I have to say, were very friendly. Nice to see them IRL. Shame a couple of my faves weren't there though - Craftwork Cards, Blonde Moments (scrummy) and Ideal which I love for cardstock and which I really need. I have decided that my next big 'need' is a QK Silhouette - better start saving!

So, here is the brief for the DCM challenge:

As a reward for all the brain power that went into the Little Extra this week, this is a simple one. From simple LythanWith a cryptic clue.Which, as I discovered to my embarrassment, when I laid it on the team, is only really possible to understand if you live in the UK. And even better, are Welsh.So... a trio of Welsh Barbers means that on your card you need to have 3 die cuts!( Dai is a common Welsh nickname for David and as there are a lot of Dai's around they are known by their jobs so a Welsh barber would be known as Dai Cuts. I'll get my coat.)

I used Sarah Bond backing paper, prima flowers (yes, again!), Melissa Frances sentiment and used my Purple Squeeze to die cut the hearts and the ribbon slider then inked the edges. The mat is Bazzil and I used a Dovecraft border punch - the smallest flower is punched too and is finished off with a silver flower brad.

Off to look at my goodies now!

I Love My New Banner!

I am sooooo lucky to have a friend like Karen who created this gorgeous new banner for my blog. The colours are just lush and I love the little birdie with a heart in it's wing. Karen is such a lovely person and we became 'cyber-friends' by chance through me buying stash from her shop 'Charmed Cards and Crafts' - http://www.charmedcardsandcrafts.co.uk/ and as well as a really well stocked shop there is a great friendly forum there too with a lovely bunch of girls - check it out, everyone is welcome. Thanks Karen - a card is winging its way to you to say thanks! She is also responsible for me becoming a Rockin Girl Blogger, so thanks again - I just need to choose my five favourites to tag now.

I created this thank you card for my friends Olga and Adrionos in Cyprus who really made our holiday with their wonderful hospitality. Papers are BG Recess, Prima flowers, PM brads, handmade orange and gold paper, rub-ons and stitching detail. I wanted the colours to reflect the warmth felt from them as well as the sun!

My nail technician bought 3 cards from me yesterday and I have to admit feeling sad at letting them go. Do you ever feel that? I think it's probably because the cards I have made recently have had so much more put into them than the ones I make for school fundraising, which are much more simple to put together. Still, at least I photographed them so I could recreate if I wanted to.

Rung my crafty friend Sally last night to ask if she wanted to come to G-Mex on Saturday and she was really excited about going. It's much more fun going with someone else and, going by our previous visits to shows, we will be there until chucking out time! Really looking forward to seeing all that new stash - I feel like a child coming downstairs on Christmas morning when I go in the exhibition halls, lol.

Right then, time to get creative!

This is my entry into the CardMakers United Challenge which is running at the moment. Here is the brief:

'The theme is 'Seaside', that's it! so your card can incorporate anything with a seaside theme; shells, sea, sand, deck chairs, candy floss...the possibilities are endless.

I was struggling to put it all together, then I spotted my Dolly Mamas stamp on the shelf. I stamped the image twice and decoupaged it using Whispers pens and a waterbrush to colour. The background is Bazzil card, and for the sea effect I rubbed a white colorbox chalk inkpad to create the waves and tore the bottom edge to show the white core. The sand is created with Tim Holtz Distress embossing powder 'Antique Linen' and the starfish is diecut. Finally, the sun embellishment I picked up some time ago; can't remember where. Looking at the finished result reminds me of myself on the beach in Cyprus, lol.

Really enjoyed myself today with a visit to the craft shop (well, I haven't been for over a week), and catching up on a few challenges. Just realised that G-Mex is this weekend and I am free so am really excited about going having never been to that show before.

Today's 'Little Extra' from Daring Card Makers is veeeeery interesting.......'Take a Letter Ms Jones.'

'OK, it's not about monograms, we've already done that. This time the challenge is to pick one letter and see how many things you can use on your card that begin with that letter.Now then, you can't choose "P" and just have pink paper, pink brads, pink ink, pink ribbon - oh no no no, that's not the way it works!You could however, useA pink card blank, paper, petals, plasma, a monogram P, something Purple, a Flower Pot...Or how about B?brads, buttons, birthday, banana (well, you never know..) blue, black, brown, blooms, buckles, bowsOr Sspots, stripes, string, sandals, Stickles, sunshine, stars, snowGot the idea? We're hoping this one will be great fun as well as maybe making you think really hard...'

So, I decided to have some fun with this one and take up the challenge of including a banana! Here is what I have included on my card - Bubbles (the name of the monkey of course!!!), BANANA, butterfly, balloons, brad, button, bow-tie, bling, ball, Best Birthday, blue and black and lots of other BRIGHT colours. 'Bubbles' is from DCWV Nana's Kids and the paper was a magazine freebie from yonks ago.

Next I did last week's mid-week challenge....

'Dash it! That's put me on the spot.....

Dot Dot Dot Dash Dash Dash
We'd like you to make a card featuring dots and dashes, spots and stripes - that's it, a nice easy and fun little theme for you to play with - just make sure you get both spots AND stripes on your card.'

Papers are Basic Grey 'Oh Baby! Boy', which are just divine, and provided the dots. I decoupaged one of the rockets, cut out the stars using my free PI templates, attached them with 3d foam and added the words 'You are a star'. The dashes are in the form of stitching around the stars and the join of the two papers. Unusual for a boys card to turn out successfully!!!

Finally for today is last Friday's challenge.....'Who's Pushing Your Buttons?'

'I know you've all got buttons stashed away somewhere, whether they've been purchased at a cardmaking store or you thriftily snipped them off DH's old shirt. I'd like you to find those buttons and use them somewhere on a card. They can be real buttons, craft shop buttons, die cut buttons, faux buttons or another type of button, surprise us all.'

The backing paper is Crate, I used PM rub-ons for the flowers and butterfly, stamped the scrolls with Heidi Grace stamp, added the buttons to 'Metal Hardware' and embellished centres. The flower I made using Daisy D's paper, organza ribbon, lots of tiny staples and a large button threaded with ribbon. I was pleased with how the flower turned out and will definately make more of these.

Where did the last week go???

Got back from a week in Cyprus at 4.30 this morning and already it feels like it never happened. Why do holidays go so quickly? I can't believe we are back at school next week.......in July it seemed as though the summer was ahead of us but this year it just didn't happen! Hence the holiday, and DID THAT SUN SHINE!! 35c every day, so most of the time spent in the pool or shade (I can see the attraction of being a fish now!) and even at night it only went down to 28c - thank goodness for aircon. Still, the brilliant news is that it was too hot to eat so for the first time ever I have come home weighing 4lbs less than when I went! Made some wonderful friends, Olga and Adrianos - hello if you look in and thank you for your most generous hospitality - you really made our holiday.

Must catch up on my fave blogs and challenges tomorrow, oh and there's the washing to do (OK, it can wait), and 50 odd emails to sort through (may as well do a mass deletion). I really missed my craft den - it's the first place I went when I got in at 4.30am to stroke some stash. Didn't find any craft shops in Cyprus so I was beginning to feel quite panicky at the lack of pretty papers and embellies, although I did take my Making Cards mag with me which I read so many times that the free papers are a bit frayed at the edges! Speaking of which, that's how I feel now (frayed at the edges), so early night for me!

The DCM challenge today is a really good one and there are some fab examples to check out on the site. Here it is -

'You must make a card with a frill - it could be some lace, frilly ribbon, a hand cut or decorative scissor edge or a folded paper frill - or what ever you choose to make.... you decide!'

I used my Keepsake embossing board for this one - I embossed the edges of the paper, cut round the scallops and cut into it to create the frills and layered them. I did the same with the square frame , added some punched flowers with a big brad, inked the edges, added a few peel offs and stamped 'enjoy' with Dovecraft acrylic stamp with white colorbox inkpad. The papers are Blonde Moments.