Digi-re-doo-dah

D'arcy's Diaries New Releases

2012-02-23T08:00:00.002Z

How are we all this Thursday morning? looking forward to the weekend which will soon be here? I'm not sure that I am, my daughter is off to a hen weekend and I have the "pleasure" LOL! of looking after my grandsons. Will is staying on Friday night, which is his regular night to stay, then Charlie will be arriving at about 11am on Saturday and I will have both the boys here until late afternoon when Neill, their dad, will be coming to take Will for a sleep-over at his friends, meanwhile Charlie will be staying here until Sunday. Not much rest and relaxation (or card making) will be happening here I think.

It's new release day over at D'Arcy's Diaries today, so let's take a look at the new images available.

This week's new releases

and here's my card

image - DD_019_02 - A gentle touch coloured in Photoshop

Digi papers - Kraft Capers and All Things Bright - both from Jessica Sprague

Teal and Taupe ribbons, Metal butterfly and self adhesive gems- MeiFlower

I thought this image would also be ideal for a Mother's day card for expectant mums, what do you think?

I thought the metallic butterfly perfectly matched the colour of the taupe ribbon and I added a few black, blue and Aurora borealis gems to embellish it. The gems on the ribbons are an exact match for the taupe ribbon.

Pop over to the D'Arcy's Diaries blog and check out the work of my fabulous teamies.

Colette xx

Teddy Bo Tuesday

2012-02-21T07:00:00.002Z

This week over at Teddy Bo we have a new challenge starting and the theme is....

Swirls and Pearls

We are hoping to see lots of cards with beautiful swirly swirls, die cut, paper patterns, anything with a swirl on and embellished with pretty pearls, not too difficult is it and you could be in with a chance

of winning the fabulous Teddy Bo 10, your choice of 10 Teddy Bo digi images,

including any of this week's new releases.

New Releases

It is actually team B's turn to host the challenge this week, but I always like to have a card to show you on a Tuesday, so here is what I came up with.

I love this image of Oliphant in the Easter Egg, although how big that egg must be to fit an elephant in doesn't bear thinking about, mmmmmm imagine how much yummy chocolate it would contain though. I hope it's Galaxy chocolate, my favourite!

No wonder Oliphant has that little smile peeking through behind his trunk, who wouldn't be smiling surrounded by all that chocolate! I just hope he hasn't done any elephant business in there LOL!

Image -TEDDYBOBEA_109

Digi Kraft papers - Pink Paislee Kraft Capers Paper Pack - Jessica Sprague

Circle dies - Spellbinders

Pearls and ribbon - MeiFlower

Pearl Swirl shapes made using Bazzill Jewel Templates

Don't forget to pop over to the Teddy Bo Challenge Blog and check out the fabulous creations by team B. You have until Sunday 4th March midnight GMT to enter the Swirls and pearls challenge.

Clipart Fairy February workshop

2012-02-19T13:11:00.004Z

Yesterday I went to this month's Clipart Fairy Workshop where we made a selection of cards with some of her new products. In our packs we also had a couple of extra bits which were printed by mistake, I used them once I got home to make a couple of extra cards.

The Workshop Cards.

Check out the New Products section in both stores for the interactive and RTP versions of these kits.

This was a large wallet card, which would make a perfect gift set, as inside it has two pockets that you could fill with a selection of cards and envelopes. We made a matching card as an example.

The top frill sticks out from the card and the roses are decoupaged and glittered.

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A pretty easel card, with roses and butterflies, the roses and top wings of the butterflies

are layered up for extra dimension.

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This is a large 20cm square ready made scalloped edge card base decorated with papers and images from the Mannequin kit. The frame was made with a GoKreate die,

flowers from WOC and the scissors are from MeiFlower.

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This card uses pretty peach rose paper and a roses and butterflies graphic, which is decoupaged. The shaper frames are part of the kit. There is also an insert included in the kit, which for our card was printed on vellum.

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An ideal man's card with a fun sentiment that continues onto the card insert.

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This is a 5" x 7" card, with decoupaged roses. I added a peel-off sentiment to the middle of the tag, (in the kits you could add your wording using the computer) and some pearls dotted around the roses.

Pearls - Meiflower

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In our packs we had a couple of extra pieces including this oval and circle with decoupage from the Antique Roses Kick Frill Interactive Kit.

When I got home I decided to use them up, so here are the cards I made with them.

Papers used are all from the kit.

I used the oval to make an A6 Mother's Day card adding a bow, a charm, pearls and peel-off wording

I cut the circle with roses out, and used it as a template to cut a second circle from blank card. I scored the blank circle at approximately 2cms in from the left hand edge and attached it the the rose circle, then trimmed a small straight edge across the bottom of the card to make it stand. I decoupaged and glittered the roses, and added a purple bow, and pearls to decorate. The tag is from the Mannequin interactive kit, I re-sized it and added my own wording.

The Ribbons, Pearls and charm used on these two cards are from MeiFlower.

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It was as always, a very busy but enjoyable day and I would like to say a big Hi! to everyone who was there, especially the mad lot that I share a table with, Oh, and an extra special thank you to Anita who supplied us with a big box of Thornton's chocs to munchie on while we were working.

Also check out this fantastic offer at MeiFlower

Ooooh and my wonderful hubby has just come in, from fixing my daughters cooker, and handed me a Tesco carrier bag telling me he's bought me a present, inside is my very own Kindle WooHoo! he's is definitely the World's Best Husband!

Hope you've enjoyed today's selection

See you soon

Colette xx

Teddy Bo Friday?!?!?!?!

2012-02-17T07:00:00.004Z

With everything that's been going on I missed Teddy Bo Tuesday and as it's Fairytale Friday today, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to show my latest Teddy Bo cards.

I planned on stitching the charms into place, but got carried away and ended up

stitching all the papers together and the word sew in the sentiment too.

Image - TB_188 - coloured in Photoshop

Digi Papers - Black Leaf SewCraft papers - MyGraphico

Silver letters - peel offs

Purple pearls, buttons and charms - MeiFlower

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How cute is Bea in her bunny costume?

Image -TB_187

Digi papers - Mels Brushes Easter Eggs Collection - MyGraphico

Die-namics Double scalloped border die

Ribbon, Ribbon Slider, pink string and buttons - MeiFlower

Don't forget to check out Fairy tale friday, where you can catch up with the happenings at Teddy Bo Towers and also see some more fabulous inspiration from my teamies.

I'm off to a Clipart Fairy workshop tomorrow, was umming and aahhing about going with Meg still not being a 100% but my hubby says it will do me good to get out for a while so I'm going.

Will be back over the weekend to show you what we made.

Colette xx

Back at last.....

2012-02-16T06:30:00.002Z

.....has anybody missed me?!
Unfortunately my youngest daughter Meg ended up in hospital last Sunday 5th February. She had the chest infection that seems to be going around, (the whole family have had it) but because of her disability (she has Arthrogryphosis - and in her case it affects every joint apart from her jaw, (she can talk the hind leg of a donkey LOL!) and her elbows), which leaves her unable to move or do much for herself, and the fact that she also has a scoliosis (curve of the spine) which causes her lungs (one more than the other) to be squashed, if she gets a chest infection it is hard for her to shift it and this time around it turned into pneumonia, so all in all she has been quite ill, needing IV antibiotics and oxygen for the best part of a week. Although at 21 she is now an adult, the hospital have been brilliant and let us spend all day, every day with her, from about 7.30am until about 10pm.
Meg finally came home a couple of days ago, and is feeling much better and brighter, especially as she is at home with all her own things around her. She has just about finished the cocktail of meds she was on and is starting to get back to her old self, I know this because she has started giving cheek again LOL!

We were so tired when she finally came home (funny how tired you get sitting around doing nothing all day!) that we didn't have the get up and go to do much, but after a few good sleeps and a day or two of taking it easy I am ready to get back at it!

Today I have four cards, some of them were supposed to be for the new D'Arcy's Diaries release last Thursday, but I suppose a week late is better than not at all so here goes.

image - DD_014 - Cupcake Queen - coloured in Photoshop

Papers - Nitwit Collections - Hey Cupcake

Martha Stewart border punch

Sentiment - computer generated

Metallic cord, cupcake charm, pale blue pearls and pink gems - MeiFlower

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Image - DD_015 - Beach Babe

Papers and sentiment - Echo Park Digital- Spring Time collection

Circle card cut with Spellbinders die

Glossy accents on sunglasses

Metallic cord, ribbon, bird and butterfly beads - MeiFlower

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Image - DD_011 - Boy Zone

Papers - Clipart Fairy - Cool Dude U Rock Creative set

Graffiti font - Graffiti Treat - Dafont (I've coloured it in)

Grosgrain ribbon - MeiFlower

Button - Stash

The photos have turned out rubbish, the light wasn't brilliant and I had to use my daylight lamp, so they all look a bit washed out and have lost some detail, the stopper in the pic above is probably the closest to the proper colours.

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This final card was made for my friend, who's mum passed away on Christmas day.

I requested the image specially from Gayle, and she asked me if I would mind if she put it in the shop, which of course I didn't, so although the card has been made for a while I was holding onto it until the image was released.

Image - DD_012 - Time to stop and think

Black, white and silver card stock

Black organza ribbon - MeiFlower

Silver card candy - stash

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That's it from me for today - have I made up for my lack of posting over the last week?

I will be back tomorrow with some Teddy Bo,

see you then.

Colette xx

A bit of this and a bit of that

2012-02-05T06:20:00.000Z

I was going to start off with a comment about how cold it's been over the last few days, but I have just read a message from one of my Teddy Bo team-mates who lives in Norway and the temperature there is -31 degrees, it's practically tropical here compared to that LOL!

I have a few Clipart Fairy cards to show you today. It was originally going to be three, but then somebody asked me for a quick thank you card so I've ended up with four.

I must apologise for the terrible pics, but the weather has been so dark and dismal here that I had to use my daylight bulb and the photos aren't very good.

Card 1

I put this card together from various parts of the Creative Easel Top Tick Tock 3 interactive kit.

In my graphics program I layered the stopper section onto the easel front (I wanted an A5 size card) and added the wording, I printed it out, along with two of the stopper sections. I added a tab at one side of each stopper section and folded them in half to make my doors.

I printed papers from the kit, onto card for my butterfly and pearl paper for my roses.

Butterfly Die- Marianne Craftables

Roses and foliage dies - Marianne Creatables

Pearls and Brad - MeiFlower

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Card 2

For this card I used the shape of the previous card as a template, and also used the clock numbers and fingers, which come separately with the above kit. The papers are from the Nature Boy papers, and the bunting comes from the Crazy birthday square frame kit. I bought the image from Sassy Cheryl's Illustrations, Wendy uses a lot of her illustrations but they are incorporated into the kit designs and don't come as a separate image, but the papers match the illustrations perfectly so it is worth investing in them, to make your kits go further.

Image - Crazy Father - Sassy Cheryl

Grosgrain ribbon - MeiFlower

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Card 3

Papers - Silk ribbons -Lilac and Gorgeous papers 5

Graphic - Little Ballerina set 1 Lilac

Oval die - Marianne Craftables

Plain circle Die - spellbinders

Fancy circle die - Nellie Snellen Multi Frame

Charms, gems and metallic cord - MeiFlower

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Card 4

My final card uses papers and flowers from the Big Blooms button it kit. The scalloped design I made myself.

Martha Stewart border punch - Half daisy

Template for making gem swirl - Bazzill Jewel templates

Ribbon, gems and pearl ribbon slider - MeiFlower

Well that's if for today folks. See you Tuesday with Teddy Bo.

A Steampunk Valentine

2012-02-03T06:00:00.003Z

I thought I would show you my very first attempt at Steampunk today. I posted it on the Teddy Bo Challenge Blog last friday, but couldn't show it on my blog because it was Polkadoodles day, it's the other teams turn on the PD blog this week so I thought that this was the perfect time to show this card.

Now I have probably told you this before but Gayle who draws Teddy Bo, also has a couple of other ranges of digi stamps, there are the D'Arcy stamps but she also does a range called Wonderland stamps, which are a little bit different from her others and the digi stamp I've used on this card is from that range. She is called the Queen of Hearts (from Alice in Wonderland) and she is just gorgeous.

Image - WS_019_Queen of Hearts-Coloured in Photoshop

Background paper - Indygochild Victorian Steampunk

Geared Heart and Flowers - This be me scraps - Steam punk for her (on sale for $1.00 at the moment)

Cogs and gears from an old clock

Sentiment mat - Xcut nesting dies-ornate bookplate

My hubby took an old clock apart for the cogs.

The large heart with the clock in the middle is a graphic which is printed onto 190gsm Matt Photo paper, but it looks so realistic, I actually want to wind the clock up and put the time right. LOL!

I am going to enter my steampunk card in these challenges

Just Inspirational Challenges - Picture inspiration & optional sketch

Little Miss Muffet Challenges - Valentines & love

Moving Along With The Times - At least 1 heart clearly visible

And then for a complete change of subject, I have a baby card to show you. I am not sure what the name of the fold is, but is is something like aTri-fold, fold back card!?!?!?!?!?!

I really don't like to make cards any smaller than 15cms sq or A5 and all the templates I could find for this type of card ended up being DL size, so I used two pieces of card and adapted the design to make a card that measures just under 15cms sq.

This is how the card looks folded flat.

Image - Babies Clipart Collection - Prints of Joy

Papers - Zoe's Spring - The Paper Shelter

Ribbon and dummy - MeiFlower

Lace and card candy - stash

Here it is open

and here it is wider, so that you can see a bit of the inside.

Hope you enjoyed today's cards, I'll be back Sunday with a Clipart Fairy creation.

Colette xx

Teddy Bo Tuesday

2012-01-31T06:00:00.000Z

This week's new releases from Teddy Bo have a bit of a Spring Cleaning theme going on, which is exactly what I need to be doing in my craft room, as it looks like a bomb's gone off in it at the moment.

I've had one of those days, you know the ones - there is something you desperately need, and you're absolutely certain where you put it the last time you used it, but then you go to get it and it's not there. You search high and low, look in all the cupboards and drawers, open up all the boxes and rummage through, pull everything out, spread them on the desk, once that's full you use the floor, and still can't find it.

You have a break for a coffee and a think, suddenly inspiration strikes, you head back up to the craft room, but no, wrong again, it's not there either. In the end you give up, wait until your husband comes in from work and tell him that you can't find it and you've looked everywhere, he says, where did you have it last, you tell him, he asks if you're sure, you reply, definitely, he goes and looks and it's not there, he turns around and looks in the one place you haven't looked, because you know there is absolutely no way you would have even dreamed of putting it there, and whilst he is looking, your adamantly telling him that he is wasting his time as there is no way in the world ever, that you would have put it there - and lo and behold, that's exactly where he finds it!!!

Why do men have the knack of being able to do that, it is so maddening.

Anyway crisis over, but the craft room looks like a herd of elephants have trampled through it. Big clean up today I think!

So onto today's card - this started off being a bit of a clean and simple card, but then I had a brainwave and decided to make some matching embellishments.

I made a little feather duster, cut up a J-cloth to make a wash cloth and a sponge to make a..... yes, you've guessed it...sponge LOL! Of course, there had to be a little bit of bling on my feather duster, after all doesn't everyone have a diamond encrusted feather duster?

Image - TBEA_183 coloured in Photoshop

Stripey paper in WORK - Echo Park digi papers - Life is Good

Insert papers and sentiment-Papercraft inspirations free download.

Gemstones - MeiFlower

Now check out the rest of this week's new releases

there is still time to grab some bargains as the sale runs until Monday 6th February.

Now go and see all these images brought to life by my fantastic teamies over on the Teddy Bo Blog.

Also a reminder that there is not long left now to enter our Anything Goes challenge, you have until this Sunday 5th February Noon GMT. The lucky winner gets to choose 10 Teddy Bo and Co digi images of their choice.

See you soon,

Colette xx

Wedding Invitation samples - Part 2

2012-01-30T07:30:00.005Z

Following on from yesterdays post here are the final two samples I made, these two don't use any designer papers at all just plain card stock and paper.

Pink and white Cardstock – papermilldirect.co.uk

Pearl paper - stash

Wording – computer generated – font Invitation

Corner die – Marianne Creatables – Anja corner – craftsulove.co.uk

Rolled roses – Marianne Creatables – as above

Ribbon, gems and diamonte heart – meiflower.co.uk

White and Navy card stock – papermilldirect.co.uk

Embossing folder – Sizzix – Ornate Swirls

Die – X-cut nesting dies – Doorplate large- Crafts U Love

Navy Ribbon, gems and diamante embellishment– meiflower.co.uk

See you tomorrow for Teddy Bo Tuesday

Colette xx

Wedding Invitation samples - Part 1

2012-01-29T07:00:00.084Z

Today I have a few wedding invitation samples to show you using some Clipart Fairy papers. I have put these together for Mei from MeiFlower, as she has samples on show around her stall when she is at the craft shows.

I have done the stationery for quite a few weddings in the past and I have vowed never again, unless my own daughter ever decides to get married of course!

To be honest I wasn't going to post anything over the weekend as I have the chesty cough/cold bug that is going around at the moment and I'm not feeling too brilliant, but it was one of those occasions where an idea just pops into your head and you can't get rid of it until you have made it. The problem was that one idea developed into another and then another and in total I ended up making five samples. Three of them are here today, the other two will be up tomorrow.

Paper – theclipartfairy.com – Ice Queen paper pack

Fancy Font – JellyKa - Love and Passion - dafont.com

Teal Satin ribbon, White organza ribbon, pearls and pearl slider – meiflower.co.uk

(By the way the Teal ribbon is on offer at the moment a 23 metre roll for only 99p)

Papers – theclipartfairy.com – Tri-Flap kit one

Initials – Font -Chopin Script – dafont.com

Dies – X-cut nesting dies – doorplate large - Crafts U Love

Ribbon, gems and heart slider – meiflower.co.uk

Papers – theclipartfairy.com – Modern Heritage CD

Frames – X-cut Nesting dies – Square Parenthesis – craftsulove.co.uk

Initials were printed onto card in a very pale grey colour and then the crystals were arranged over them.

Crystals, metallic cord and double heart charm – meiflower.co.uk

I always try to make wedding invitations quite simple because when you have to make lots it can be very time consuming. The one with the initials in crystal looks simple,but making up the initials took a while and I don't think I would use this idea if I had to make more than about 20.

I'll see you tomorrow with the last two.

Colette xx

Polkadoodles Template Challenge

2012-01-27T09:00:00.000Z

This week the challenge on the Polkadoodle blog is

Tantalizing Templates

and we want to see your projects using a Polkadoodles template, either digital or plastic.

For my card this week I have chosen to use the cupcake template from Paper Boutique Vol III. This comes in pink as well as the green and also a blank version that you can decorate yourself.

I decided to use the green version.

The "chocolate" stars have a coating of glossy accents and I've tied some string and a button across the front to finish it off.

Pop over to the Polkadoodles blog and check out the inspiration from the rest of my teamies.

You have until Sunday 5th February Noon GMT to get your entries in, we would love to see which template you choose to use.

D'arcy's Diaries New Releases

2012-01-26T07:30:00.001Z

The two weeks since the launch of the D'Arcy's Diaries store has flown by and I can't quite believe it is time for a new release, but it is, so lets take a look at what's new in store this week.

I've had a little play with one of the images and these are what I have come up with.

This is a gift bag and matching card. The bag is basically a pinch bag, but I have added a flap over the top and a pocket on the front. I thought this would be a good place to put a gift card or a gift of money. The card fits perfectly into the bag and there is also room for a small gift.

Image DD_008 Coloured in Photoshop

Digital Papers - Echo Park - Springtime 2

Scalloped circle dies - GoKreate

Ribbons and metallic cord - MeiFlower

Buttons - stash

I am entering this card into these challenges

C.R.A.F.T. - Recipe* (Digi Image, Ribbon, Buttons)
Do You Stack Up? - Inspiration Picture* Ribbon
Penny's Paper-Crafty - #71 ribbons and buttons
Die Cuttin' Divas - must include a Die-cut -#49 Buttons Bows and/or Bling

This card shape was cut with a die, and I decorated the metal butterfly with stick on gems.

Image - same as above

XL Window #2 Die - GoKreate

Papers - Shery K/My Graphico - Charming

May your day be perfect - digital stamp/ticket sentiment - Deborah Moore

Ribbons, butterfly and gems - MeiFlower

I love the D'Arcy images they are so easy to colour and a pleasure to work with, I just wish I had more time for crafting, if anybody finds that elusive extra hour in the day, please send it my way LOL!

I am entering this card into these challenges

Sassy Cheryl's - #99 Light Blue & Brown

Daisy Doodles Creative Challenge - (must use digi) - Anything Goes

MyGrafico - Tickets Anywhere for Someone Special

Pop over to the D'Arcy's Diaries blog and check out the rest of the fabulous

inspiration from my brilliant teamies

Back tomorrow with Polkadoodles,

see you then,

Colette xx

Teddy Bo Trio and Blog Hop Winner!

2012-01-24T09:00:00.002Z

It's Tuesday again and that can only mean one thing, it's Teddy Bo new release day and also time to announce the blog hop winners. So if you joined in with the hop check here to see if you are a lucky winner.

The randomly selected winner of a Teddy Bo and Co digi image of their choice and my blog candy is...........

Karen at http://mycraftycupboard-karen.blogspot.com/

Karen if you can contact Gayle at support@teddybo.com to claim your digi image and email me with your address (address in my profile) with Blog hop winner in the subject line I will sort out getting your prize to you.

Thank you to everyone who played along, I hope you enjoyed our first blog hop.

Now onto this week's Teddy Bo Cards.

I asked Gayle to draw me the image I have used this week, it is loosely based on the war poster featuring Kitchener, which says - Your Country Needs you - but I asked Gayle for the wording to read - Your Birthday Needs you - as my plan was to add some text at the bottom to make the card

suitable for a young boy.

Here's how it worked out.

I added a background of my own to turn the image into a poster.

image - TEDDYBO_174 coloured in Photoshop

Papers - Echo park - Little Boy

Green cord - MeiFlower

button - stash

Once finished I thought to myself, if I change the papers and wording I could use the same image and make a card suitable for a teenager.

This is how that one turned out.

Image as above

Papers - Shery K - Party Time papers

Yellow cord - MeiFlower

Buttons - stash.

Feeling quite pleased with myself and admiring my handiwork I thought to myself once again, if I change the papers and wording again I could make this suitable for an older teen/young adult.

This is the result.

Image - as previous

Papers - Men In Mind - Clipart Fairy

Glass of beer die - Cottage Cutz

buttons - stash

After all that thinking my brain hurt, and the only remedy for that, was a glass of wine and a bar of chocolate!

Felt much better afterwards LOL!

I am entering my cards into the following challenges;

Crazy 4 Challenges - #C4C120 A Child's Birthday Card > Card 1

The Crafty Pad - "Let's See Something for The Boys!" > Take your pick

Marks Finest Papers -#91 Birthday Card > Take your pick

Make it Monday - always Anything Goes > Take your pick

Sew Many Cards - Circles > middle card

Stamps R Us - Card for Kids >Card 1 or 2

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Check out this weeks new releases

Go to the Teddy Bo Challenge Blog for a full list of Blog Hop winners and while you're there check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.

There is also still plenty of time to enter our Anything Goes challenge which still has almost a fortnight to run, you need to get your entries in by Sunday 5th February Midnight GMT.

Hugs
Colette xx

Blog Hop and Candy from Teddy Bo!

2012-01-23T10:26:00.000Z

Teddy Bo Tuesday First Birthday Extravaganza!

Please click here to go to my bloghop post

This post will remain at the top of the blog until the end of the Blog Hop.

Clipart Fairy January Workshop

2012-01-22T13:44:00.000Z

Yesterday I spent the day at this month's Clipart Fairy workshop. Once again we made six cards, and if you like the look of any of them then they are available as both interactive and Ready to Print versions.

All the cards come with matching inserts, and the interactive versions have lots of other bits and pieces too.

Gabriella Big Flower

Big Hearts Kit 1

Creative Easel Top - Tic Tock 3

Rosie Rag doll

Tri-fold Card

Under the Weather

Although it's a very busy day, it's also very enjoyable, and we still find time to chat, don't we Donna!

Just a quick post today as I'm not feeling too good, full of this cold that seems to be doing the rounds.

See you soon,

Hugs

Colette xx

Valentine Coupons

2012-01-20T06:30:00.004Z

No Polkadoodles card from me today as it is not my teams turn, so instead and carrying on my Valentine themed post from Tuesday, today I have a Valentine Coupon book to show you.

The book contains twelve coupons and on each one there is a little message saying what you receive when you redeem that token. They can be used in any order, and you can put basically anything at all you want on them, as innocent or as raunchy as you like. Some of mine contain nice simple things, like a kiss, a cuddle, one day with exclusive use of the TV remote, breakfast in bed etc., but there might also be one or two that mention chocolate sauce ;-)!!!

TEDDYBOBEA-098 coloured in photoshop

Papers Echo Park digital papers - Yours Truly

Filigree heart Die - Memory Box

Silver glitter paper - Hobbycraft store

Metallic cords and gems - MeiFlower

If you like the image but don't do colouring then check out the store this Tuesday for the coloured version of both the one above and Teddy Bo cupid from my last post, and the 25% off sale is still running until the 6th February, so plenty of time to grab yourself a bargain.

If you have a few minutes to spare pop over to the Teddy Bo Challenge blog for this weeks instalment of Fairy Tale Friday, which involves a black cat, bruised kneecaps and cupid!?!?!?

I'm off to a Clipart Fairy Workshop tomorrow, so I will be back on Sunday to show you all the fabby cards we made.

See you then,

Colette xx

Teddy Bo Tuesday

2012-01-17T07:20:00.001Z

It's been very cold here the last couple of days, so I haven't left the house, just stayed inside in the warm and crafted.

Here is my card using one of this week's new graphics. I asked Gayle for Teddy Bo as cupid, but for some reason Gayle had brain freeze and drew him without wings. So I sent her a picture of exactly what I wanted and she came up with the goods.

I made a spinner card, spin the wheel and wherever the arrow points is what you get.

Unfortunately I didn't have enough room to add, wild, unabandoned, passionate love making, including the use of chocolate sauce!!! LOL! so had to do with kiss me, hold me, hug me, love me ;-(

TEDDYBO-171 coloured digitally

Echo Park digtal papers - Yours Truly

Pearl brad - Hobby House

Ribbon and ribbon slides - MeiFlower

What's new in store?

and don't forget there is still 25% off the digital products, go grab yourself a bargain.

if you would like it then here's the spinner, just right click and save as.

I do have a slightly raunchier version, it only has two choices and they both have chocolate sauce in them, one also contains whipped cream!!!. If you want it, email me,( my address is in my profile) put spinner in the subject line and I will send it to you.

Head over to the Teddy Bo challenge blog and check out the wonderful inspiration from my teamies, plus there is still a week left to join in our birthday blog hop, and our month long Anything Goes challenge has three more weeks to go, so plenty of time to get your entries in.

I am entering my card into the following challenges

Digital Tuesday - include a digital element - #143 Romantic Cards

Paperminutes - #200 Party time- Anything Goes

Daisy Doodles Creative Challenge -(must use digi) -Anything Goes

Lexi's Creations - Anything Goes

Make it Monday - always Anything Goes

MyGrafico - Love and Valentines

Truly Madly Crafty Challenges - Anything Goes

Have a great day

hugs

Colette xx

Birdies and Bunnies

2012-01-15T02:27:00.002Z

My hubby was planning to clean the pond this weekend, he likes to try and do it before the frogs turn up and make babies, last year he was too late, as by February we had tons of frog spawn, and he doesn't like to disturb it.

He decided to get up early Saturday morning and get stuck in, only to find that the pond was frozen solid and didn't thaw all day.

He's hoping to have better luck next weekend as it definitely needs a good clean. In the Autumn my grandson Will was playing out in the garden with his friend Harry and all Will's wrestling figures, boys being boys, for some reason they decided it would be great fun to throw them into the pond, all 20 of them! my hubby only managed to rescue about four of them so there are still 16 wrestlers laying in the silt at the bottom of the pond, cold, wet, lonely and uncared for, at least they have each other for company LOL!

Goodness knows what state they are going to be in when they are rescued,

they'll probably only be fit for the bin!

My hubby ended up cleaning the fish tanks instead, at least they are indoors where it is nice and warm!

Anyway onto today's cards. I have been playing with some more Clipart Fairy goodies

and have made three cards.

Card number one uses the Book-a-Easel Pages - One Big Flower this is an interactive set, so you need to have a program for re-sizing the pages. There is a matching graphic to go with the pages, but I used a bunny from Bunnie Stiches Shab-b-ness 5, there are five other colours of bunnies to choose from.

Each page is edged in glamour dust, and is shaped and layered, the sentiment is computer generated.

I usually make these up as Easel cards, but I decided I fancied a change with this one and made it into a tent card instead.

Gingham Ribbon, gems and flower ribbon slider are from MeiFlower.

I decided to photograph it at an angle to try and show the shaping and layers, not sure it worked though.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I also made two cards using Spring has Sprung papers and Summer Birdy graphics. There are 48 papers in the set for only £3.00 and 6 birdies in the graphics set for only 65p, great value for money.

Card number two, is a simple square shape, plain and patterned papers have been printed onto card

then matted and layered to make up my design.

I used spellbinders dies for the frame and sentiment circle, sentiment is computer generated.

The daisies are made with Die-Namics Upsey Daisies dies.

Bird charm, metallic cord and pearls, coloured with Azure Promarker, are from MeiFlower

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Card number three, uses papers and graphic from the same sets as card number two.

I have used the GoKreate XL windows 2 for the curved shapes

GoKreate scalloped circles for the frame

Spellbinders circle die for the mat

and the same Upsey Daisies die as above for the daisies.

Gems are from MeiFlower

I love the birdy images, they are just soooo cute!

I hope you've enjoyed looking at today's offerings.
Enjoy what's left of the weekend.
Hugs, Colette xx

Polkadoodles Vintage Challenge

2012-01-13T09:00:00.001Z

This week it's my team's turn for the Polkadoodle challenge, although we have been hi-jacked by Fliss, who's daughter is celebrating her 21st birthday, Fliss wanted us to make cards in the style her daughter likes which is

Vintage or Retro

I have sort of made a vintage card, at least it has vintage cars on it, does that count LOL!

Everything comes from the Not for Girls CD, I printed one of the plain papers straight onto card to give me my background and then everything else was layered on top. I also used some grosgrain ribbon from MeiFlower and some brads and a mini bulldog clip which I found in my stash to finish it off.

Have you seen the new Polkadoodle magazine that is available for pre-order, it comes with an A6 set of polymer stamps and 10 A4 papers. The magazine has 12 step by step tutorials and inspiration on how to use your kit. Check it out here.

Head over to the Polkadoodles blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my teamies and you have until Sunday 22nd Noon GMT to get your challenge entries in.

D'arcy's Diaries Open for Business

2012-01-12T06:00:00.004Z

You may have noticed the D'arcy's Diaries Logo in my side bar, well today is the day folks, the grand opening of the D'arcy's Diaries store, brought to you straight from the pen of the Teddy Bo creator Gayle!

D'arcy's Diaries

You may have already noticed quite a few of these images about as I know the DT have been having fun playing with them and spreading them around blog land. You may even have seen a couple of the images on cards on my blog a week or two ago, that was a bit of a sneak peek,

but now they are out there in the big wide world for everyone to own, and you won't be sorry, the images are beautiful and such a pleasure to colour, and I'm sure you will come to love D'arcy as much as I do.

I have another card to show you today, made especially for the launch, I hope you like it!

This is D'arcy DD_02 - coloured in Photoshop in my favourite colours turquoise and lilac/purple

Papers - Nitwits - Promises Kit

Sentiment and oval frame - Kay Miller - Hopes and Dreams

Rolled roses - Marianne Creatables die

Foliage thingies - Marianne Creatables die - Leaves

Charms, metallic cord and gems - MeiFlower

Now although I have both a big shot and a Grand Calibur (Santa brought it), I actually cut each of the scalloped layers and the frame out by hand, as I didn't have dies in the size I wanted,

so if I never see another scallop ever again, it won't be too soon!!! LOL!

Check out all the fabulous creations made by the rest of the DT here.

If you want a chance to win some candy, including a Teddy Bo digi image then go to this post HERE

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Anything Goes Challenge - Anything Goes at Anything Goes

Paper Take Weekly - Die Cute Special (Use a Die Cut & Make it Cute)

Shopping Our Stash - #34 All That Glitters, Sparkles Or Shines

Crafty Bloggers Network - Anything BUT Square

Make it Monday - always Anything Goes
Some Odd Girl - "Bling It Up"
Little Darlings Challenges - #15 favorite color (my favourite colour combo)
My Mum's Craft shop - #39 girls
Top Tip Tuesday - #67 Anything Goes

Woohoo! Teddy Bo first birthday Challenge and blog hop

2012-01-10T09:00:00.000Z

This post will stay at the top until the blog hop is over, scroll down for other posts.

Can you believe it's been a whole year since Teddy Bo and Teddy Bea took their first tentative steps out into the big scary world of digital stamps and look how far they've come in that time. I have been there from the very beginning when we started out with a small DT of about six, (we've lost a couple along the way, although there are still four of us on the present DT), the bears' popularity has gone from strength to strength and we now have more than double that amount.

Of course a birthday needs a celebration so hop along with the Teddy Bo Birthday Blog hop,

enter the draw for the fabulous Teddy Bo Birthday Candy.

and be sure to enter our month long Anything Goes Challenge, to win the fabulous Teddy Bo 10

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We've a lot to get through today so let's start off with my card for this week.

I have made a window card using one of this week's new releases

Now you're looking at this card and thinking that's not a window card, you are, aren't you?! go on, admit it,

well it is a window card honestly! it's just that the window isn't on the front of the card...

It's inside!

Peeking through the window you can see Teddy Bea giving Teddy Bo her heart, awwww!

Flip it over and the floral heart is framed beautifully in the window, clever or what!

TEDDYBO_166 - coloured in Photoshop

TEDDYBOBEA_089single - I removed the ring and replaced it with a heart
Paint splats and drips, made by me in Photoshop

Papers, floral heart, swirls, cherish word art - Kay Miller - Simple Pleasures kit.

Spellbinders Labels 22 die used for page tab

X-cut nesting dies ornate frame - window and frame.

Martha Stewart border punch

Pearl hearts and gems -MeiFlower

Card candy - stash.

Check out this weeks new releases and the 25% off digital graphics birthday sale.

And now it's time to get hopping........

Start at the Teddy Bo Challenge Blog and then follow each of the DT blogs in order.

Collect a letter from each of the DT blogs . . . keep these in a SAFE PLACE as you will need to re-arrange these letters at the end of the blog hop to make a mystery phrase!!!! Can't say any more !!!

Each DT member is offering a prize along the hop, so make sure you’re a follower and leave a comment on each of their blogs to be in with a chance of winning your choice of a Teddy Bo digital graphic.

Re-arrange your collected letters and leave a comment on the Teddy Bo challenge blog telling us what the mystery phrase is.

The blog hop will end on Monday 23^rd January (noon GMT), so you have a while to enter and hop along with us!

If you have arrived here from Nela's blog then you are heading in the right direction.

My Letter is

As I am the last stop on the hop you should now have all your letters, re-arrange them into a simple two word phrase and then head back to The Teddy Bo Challenge blog to leave a comment containing your answer, if this is your first stop on the hop head over to the challenge blog and start from there.

Good luck!

If you get lost, or if a link doesn't work (we are all on different time zones), go back to the Teddy Bo Challenge blog to get the next link.

I also have some extra candy.

As well as the Teddy Bo graphic my winner will also get today's card, and some crafting goodies, including everything below and a few extra things not shown.

Happy Hopping!

Colette xx

Clipart Fairy Shaper Freebie part 2

2012-01-09T09:00:00.012Z

Following on from yesterday's post, here are my second two cards using The Clipart Fairy freebie Shaper set.

A double twisted Easel card.

I re-sized the shaper set to the size I needed, added a graphic to one of the toppers and wording to the second and the stopper. I also used the freebie paper that comes with the set for the base of the card. Once I had attached the shapers to the easel sections, I cut around three sides so that the background card was the same shape as the shapers. I cut a slot in each side of the stopper and threaded ribbon through, which I fixed to the reverse of the patterned bases. A couple of buttons as stoppers and a couple more as decoration, a small charm and a bow finished it off.

Freebie Shaper set - The Clipart Fairy blog

Colur backed Lucy graphic - The Clipart Fairy

Buttons, charm and ribbon - MeiFlower

My final card is a simple tent fold baby card.

Once again I sized the background shaper to approximately 6 inches square and the topper slightly smaller. I added my graphic and wording to the topper, and also printed out an extra graphic.

I scored and folded the background shaper in half to make a tent card, and attached the topper to it using foam pads, before attaching I punched a small hole, knotted ribbon and cord onto the dummy and charm, pushed the ends through the hole and secured on the back. I then glued a bow over the top.

I cut around the second graphic leaving a small white edge and fixed to the card using foam pads, and used some pearls in the corners to finish off.

Freebie Shaper set- as above

Stork Girl Graphic - The Clipart Fairy

Dummy, charm, ribbon, cord and pearls - MeiFlower

Don't forget to check out the new Shaper CD coming on January 31st

Come back tomorrow and help us celebrate Teddy Bo's first birthday with our birthday blog hop, you will have the chance to win a graphic on each blog along the way and some fab prizes on the main challenge blog.

Clipart Fairy Shaper Freebie part 1

2012-01-08T01:17:00.002Z

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that the Clipart Fairy had a Shaper Set and Alphabet freebie over on her blog. (all still available Part 1 Here and Part 2 Here).It is a taste of what is going to be on her latest CD which will be released on 31st January.
The CD will contain approximately 24 different shaper sets, each one in both interactive and ready to print versions, there will also be some alpha's, matching papers and word art. The shapers will start with baby and cover all the major events throughout the year including Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Graduation, Wedding etc., and end with Christmas, there is some more information about it HERE.

I thought that I would use the freebie to show you some ways of using the shaper sets.

In all I made four cards, one with the alphabet and the other three with the shaper set. I will show you two today and two tomorrow.

Firstly here is my card using the alphabet.

I made a triple twisted easel card, using the letters to spell out the word mum on the easel sections

and happy birthday along the stopper section.

As well as the freebie Alphabet

I used papers from Gorgeous Papers Set 2

punched flowers

and a charm, ribbon and pearls from MeiFlower

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Crafty Emma - #67 Anything goes

Fussy and Fancy - Animal Print OR Happy Birthday

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My second card is a very simple one using the freebie shaper set.

I resized the background shaper to fit a 6 inch square envelope and printed it out so that it was on the right hand half of a piece of A4 card. Once printed I scored down the left hand edge of the shaper then folded, and cut through both layers at once, leaving the parts that touched the fold uncut.

I re-sized the top shaper, so that it was smaller than the background one and added my graphic, printed it, cut it, added ribbon and a charm and attached the whole thing to the card with foam pads. I printed the graphic out a second time, and cut around it leaving a white edge, added a bit of glamour dust to the hair bows and attached with foam pads.

A couple of gems around the edge finished it off.

Freebie Shaper set

Bunnies Graphic - The Clipart Fairy

Ribbon, charm and gems - MeiFlower

I haven't added a sentiment to the front yet as I am not sure if I am going to use it as a general birthday card, a friend card or even an Easter card (it has bunnies!)

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Catch The Bug - January Anything Goes

Forever Friends - A Shaped Card (no square)

Scrapbook Sisters - #66 anything goes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'll be back tomorrow with my second two.

Wot no cards!

2012-01-06T03:04:00.000Z

No card from me today, the Polkadoodles DT is so big it has now been split into two teams and I am on Team B. This week it is Team A's turn to host the challenge, which is a sketch and shades of Grey.

The lovely peeps at Letraset have kindly donated a special set of Flexmarkers which Nikky asked them to put together for us...all in shades of Grey! The challenge runs until Sunday 15 January at 12noon GMT.

So use the sketch and get out your shades of grey and let's see what you can come up with.

There is also the brand new Polkadoodles Club - the Pen and Paper Circle! There are no costly membership costs to this, you just sign up on pre-order if you want the issue and wait for it to drop through your door - simples! We'll be bringing you an exclusive stamp and some other goodies each time together with a fabulous step by step project magazine which is entirely put together by the Design Team and is full of inspiration - there will be at least 12 projects plus loads of other hints and tips each issue! If that's not a good enough reason to sign up we don't know what is! We're overwhelmed by the response so far (Nikky has had to quadruple the initial stock she ordered) but you still have until 15th January to order your kit, so get in now to make sure you can get hold of yours!

And if that wasn't enough be sure to catch Nikky on Create and Craft TV tomorrow (Saturday 7th) at 11am and 4pm for more ideas and inspiration, and don't forget to check out Team A's fabulous creations over on the Polkadoodles blog.

I would have liked to have had a card to show you but I've had a bit of a hectic week and still haven't managed to get my Christmas tree down yet, but with both a funeral and a birthday yesterday I just completely ran out of time, so that's my first job for today.

I will be back over the weekend with some Clipart Fairy creations, and would also like to remind you that the 25% of the whole store sale is still running at MeiFlower until Sunday the 8th.

And finally, Teddy Bo and Co will be celebrating their first birthday on Tuesday, and we are having a birthday blog hop with prizes and candy, so make sure you come along and join in the fun.

hugs

Colette xx

Handbags

2012-01-04T01:56:00.003Z

A friend of mine asked me to make a card for her mum's 80th birthday. I was told no brown or beige, and she loves handbags, so I decided to make her a handbag card.

Papers, flower and tag - Nitwit Collections - Promises

small amount of silver card for buckles from stash

Pearls - MeiFlower

The bag closes with stick it Magnetic tape, which is hidden under the top pieces.

The wording inside was written by my friend.

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Pile It On - Anything Goes

Simply Create Too - Shape It Up

There was not enough bling on that bag for me, so I decided to make an evening type bag, with lots of crystals and charms and this is how it turned out.

Papers - Nitwit Collections - Super Meewee

Polka dot ribbon, charms, and all gems - MeiFlower

I used chain from a cheap broken necklace to dangle the charms from and once again the bag closes with Stick It Magnetic tape.

I am going to enter this card into the following challenges

Top Tip Tuesday - #67 Anything Goes

Make it Monday - always Anything Goes

There is a fantastic sale over at MeiFlower, 25% off the whole store, so now is the perfect time to stock up on your gems, charms and ribbons.

Off to buy bling, see you soon.
Colette xx

I'm Back!!!

2012-01-03T01:42:00.000Z

I know it's been very quiet here at Digiredoodah for the last week or so, but like most of you I have been enjoying some time with family and friends over the festive period, but now it's time to start getting things back to normal, well as normal as possible, and to that end here is my latest offering from Teddy Bo and Co

The birthstone challenge is still running and will continue to do so until Sunday 8th,

so you still have time to get an entry in.

Next week will be the start of a new challenge over at Teddy Bo, and it is also our first birthday, so we will be having a birthday bash with some giveaways and you are all invited.

We only have a mini release this week and I have used one of the new images for my card.

This card is for my friend's son who is 18 today, Happy Birthday Peter, hope it's a good one!

Image - TEDDYBO_164 coloured in Photoshop

Papers - Little Man - Amy Bleser

Buttons - Papermania

Waxed String - MeiFlower

What's new this week

Not too long to wait for the release of the new Darcy Images

And remember...if you post the D'Arcy's Diaries badge on your blog and link back to http://www.darcysdiaries.com/then you could be in with a chance of winning a £15 voucher to spend at http://www.teddybo.com/, The FairyD store, http://www.wonderlandstamps.co.uk/

or http://www.darcysdiaries.com/

See you tomorrow!

Colette xx

Season's Greetings!

2011-12-23T07:00:00.002Z

This will be my last post before Christmas so I wanted to take this opportunity to wish all my followers and visitors to my blog a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Peaceful New Year, and to say a big thank you for all the kind comments and support you have given me this past twelve months.

I have two cards to show you again today, the first one is my Christmas Card to each and every one of you.

Image TEDDYBOBEA_094 - Coloured in Photoshop

Papers - Simply Christmas papers 4 - Clipart Fairy

Ribbon - MeiFlower

Wording is computer generated, and the banner makes this image so versatile as just by changing the wording it would be suitable for so many occasions.

My second card uses one of the new D'Arcy's Diaries images.

www.darcysdiaries.com

OPENS THURSDAY 12th JANUARY 2012

Post this on your blog with a link back to the D'Arcy's Diaries blog for a chance to win a £15 voucher to be spent in either Teddy Bo & Co, The FairyD store, Wonderland Stamps or D'Arcy's Diaries.

D'Arcy isn't really into the whole Christmas thing, even with her Christmassy clothes and hair, that's why her little heart says Humbug!

Image - FAIRYD_DD_002 coloured in Photoshop

Papers - Harlequin Book a easel kit - Clipart Fairy

Ribbon - MeiFlower

Martha Stewart border punch.

Wings have been 3D'ed and along with the heart

have been coated in Glossy Accents

Once again I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas, and that Santa brings you everything on your list. See you in the New Year when we have lots of exciting things coming up, including Teddy Bo's first birthday (10th January) and of course the D'Arcy's Diaries launch.

I may be back before then though if I get lots of crafting goodies off Santa as I will have to try them all out, won't I ?!?!?!?!!!

Hugs

Colette xx

Clipart Fairy Little Beauty

2011-12-22T07:30:00.020Z

As promised on Sunday I have a pretty little birthday card to show you, made using the Little Beauty Paper pack and one of the Little Birthday Beauties images from the Clipart Fairy. The paper pack contains 32 gorgeous papers made especially to co-ordinate with the images, but they don't have any particular theme to them, there is a mixure of dots, stripes, checks and floral which makes them very versatile and perfect for any girly cards. The image pack contains 6 little girl graphics, so plenty of card design options with the two kits combined.

I have used a plain paper from the pack printed onto A4 card for my card base, then matted and layered different papers, some with double sided tape, some with foam pads, to add some dimension to the card.

Papers - Little Beauties Papers

Image - Little Birthday Beauties

Scalloped Frame - X-cut Die-licious dies

Sentiment shape - Memory Box Woven circle die

Charm, Polka dot ribbon and gems - MeiFlower

The Clipart Fairy also has a new CD coming out in the New Year, and to give you a taste of what's on it she is giving away a fab freebie over on her blog, a complete shaper set and matching alphabet, just pop over here if you want to snag it for yourself.

How are your Christmas preparations going? I just need to finishing wrapping a couple of pressies and get to the local farm shop for my potatoes and veggies and I am just about ready for Christmas, I don't know about it being the most wonderful time of the year, I think it is definitely the most stressful time of the year LOL!

When is Teddy Bo Tuesday not Teddy Bo Tuesday?.......

2011-12-20T07:30:00.003Z

.....when FairyD, Teddy Bo's creator decides to come up with a fantastic new character for the girls on the DT to play with.

There are still a couple of Teddy Bo new releases this week, Bo and Bea with braces (how strange does Bea look with a mouth), and holding a banner (this one will be turning up on my blog later in the week)....

.....but in the New Year there will be a new young lady for you all to play with, she is called D'arcy, and she is just adorable, you are going to luuuuuuurve her!

She will be available to all from 12th January 2012

I have made two cards today using one of the D'arcy images, just to whet your appetite, and if you pop over to the Teddy Bo Challenge Blog you will get to see the rest of the images, as the design team have all fallen in love with her and most have used her for their cards this week.

Image - FAIRYD_TB_GIRL_03

Papers - Sweet Candy - Clipart Fairy

Heart Die - X Cut Die-licious Dies

Heart and Key Die - Spellbinders

Ribbon and pearls - MeiFlower

I am entering this card into these challenges

Bunny Zoe's Crafts -Fancy Folds/Shaped Card

Make it Monday - always Anything Goes

Corrosive Challenges -Anything BUT Christmas

Wags 'n Whiskers – Fancy Folds

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Image - FAIRYD_TB_GIRL_03

Papers - Sweet Candy - Clipart Fairy

Die - Nellie Snellen

Charms, gems, ribbon, silver cord - MeiFlower

What do you think, isn't she fabulous?!!!

I am entering this card into the following challenges

One Stitch At A Time -Anything Goes

Sparkles Forum - Anything BUT a Christmas Card

The Crafty Pad - Anything But Christmas

Delightful Challenges -- Anything Goes

Southern Girls - Lets Celebrate (anything)

This week we have the final winners of the Teddy Bo Tombola,

thank you to everyone who played along, I hope those of you that won

prizes were pleased with what you got.

Today's names were drawn by my hubby as Meg is in respite this week.

Congratulations Hazel and Chrissy who were drawn as the winners of this weeks tombola, and NannieFlash and Dawn Louise whose names were drawn out to receive one of the unclaimed prizes from previous weeks.

Ladies if you could all contact me with your address details (my email address is in my profile and please put Tombola in the subject line) I will get your prizes posted out to you next week after the Christmas rush.

There is still plenty of time to enter the current Teddy Bo Challenge - Birthstone Colours - as it runs until

Midnight Sunday 8th January 2012.

Clipart Fairy Retirement!

2011-12-18T10:29:00.001Z

No I am not announcing the retirement of the Clipart Fairy, I have two retirement cards to show you made using Clipart Fairy kits, you can breathe a sigh of relief all you Clipart Fairy fans LOL!

I have a male and female retirement card in an Art Deco style. In both cases I have used the printables kit with extra paper from a different kit in each set.

The topper on this card is from the Retired Lady 1 printable. The frame, wording and image print out onto A4 card, which should then be scored down the left hand side of the frame, folded and then cut through both layers to make a stand alone card, (the shawl has a couple of layers of decoupage) but I cut the frame and image out and attached it to an easel card using matching papers from Retired Lady 1 Parts.

The jewelled brads I found in my stash, they are by Dovecraft, I think I picked them up at one of the shows and the feathers are also from my stash. There is quite a liberal helping of Glamour dust on the card too, but it doesn't show up in the photo.

The background and topper for this card came from the Man in a Hat topper Retirement and Birthday kit, along with a stripy paper I used on the inside, the red paper comes from Man In a Hat and Jacket Birthday Toppers kit. I used it to cut out a rectangle larger than the topper, attach the topper with foam pads and then trim the corners to the same shape as the topper. The pocket watch is a Spell binders die, the grosgrain ribbon and brads are from MeiFlower and I used a gold peel off for the chain.

I will be back later in the week with another Clipart Fairy card, a birthday card using Little Beauties paper and one of the Little Birthday Beauties Images

Also just a quick heads up to let you know that MeiFlower have 25% off their Satin Ribbons,

just enter code RIBBON25 at the checkout.

Polkadoodles Through the Window challenge

2011-12-16T09:00:00.032Z

Daniele has chosen this week's theme for the last Polkadoodles challenge of 2011 which is

Looking Through the Window

and she wants you to use a window cut out or aperture to peer through to the scene outside (which is on the inside of the card).

For my window card I have used images and a paper from the Magical Winter CD's The window section of the card is (once again) bowed out and I used a Martha Stewart border punch to make my window frame. I added glitter to the holly berries and glossy accents to the bow. The lamp-post is a Marianne Creatables die.

In this pic I have tried to show how the front of the card arches away from the background.

Pop over to the Polkadoodles challenge blog and check out the rest of my teamies fabulous creations.

You have until Sunday 25th December (Christmas day woohoo!) Noon GMT to get your challenge entries in.

Teddy Bo Tuesday Birthstone Colours

2011-12-12T07:30:00.003Z

We have our last challenge of 2011 over on the Teddy Bo Challenge blog this week, the Design Team will be taking a break until 10th January, when we will be back with a huge celebration for Teddy Bo's first birthday, although you will still see things popping up over on the challenge blog, maybe a couple of new graphics and DT inspiration from a few of us.

This week's challenge is hosted by Team B,and their chosen theme is

Birthstone Colours.

I like to join in each week, whichever teams turn it is, as the new graphics are always so hard to resist.

There is a chart on the blog if you are not sure what colour your birthstone is.

I am a May baby and my birthstone is Emerald, so today I have a very green card to show you.

Image - TEDDYBOBEA_092 coloured in Photoshop

All Papers (inc Kraft) - Digi paper pack Merry and Bright by Crystal (fantastic value at only $8.44 for an amazing 132 papers in reds, blues, greens, pinks, lemons, creams, lots of Christmas patterns as well as dots, stripes, checks, plains etc.)

Ribbon and pompom - stash

The challenge will run until Sunday 8th January 2012, so plenty of time to get your birthstone colour card or project made and uploaded.

This week's new releases

Pop over to the challenge blog and check out the fabulous creations from the DT.

.....And finally, the Teddy Bo Tombola.

This week's winners, drawn once again by my daughter Meg are...........

Nela and Donna if you could email me (putting Tombola in the subject line) with your contact details I will get your parcels in the post (click on view my complete profile for my email address.)

This is your last chance to win one of the Tombola prizes, so if you would like to try your luck, it's really easy, just leave your name and one of the remaining numbers in the comments section of this post.

5 or 6

I also have two unclaimed prizes, so after drawing the first two I will also randomly select a second two winners, who will each get one of the unclaimed prizes.
If you are not sure what the tombola is all about check out the details here.
Thanks for playing along.
Colette xx

Clipart Fairy Big Bloom and Playful Panels

2011-12-11T12:39:00.000Z

Today I have two cards to show you that I have made using a couple of the Clipart Fairy's latest Kits. The same kits were used for some of the workshop cards last weekend, but I always like to see what else I can do with them.

The Big Blooms Button It kit is full of lovely vibrant colours, has 13 papers, the flower in three different colour ways, oval frames, mat and layer me base, wording and the girl graphic (which I haven't used this time) in both a frilled and unfrilled frame, as a super graphic.

I have mat and layered papers from the kit, used the checked frame as a diamond instead of square, and used a Die-Namics double scallop border die for embellishment.

I shaped and glittered the flowers and layered them up.

The flower centre is made up of a 20mm rhinestone spacer and 14mm acrylic rhinestone from the Hobby House, and I used the gorgeous Crystal AB stick on gems from MeiFlower to add lots of sparkle. I love these iridescent crystals as they pick up the colours surrounding them.

My second card uses parts of the Playful Panels Blue interactive kit, the RTP Playful Panels Blue kit and also a paper from the Playful Panels Classic Kit

I enlarged one of the panels to A4 size, printed, cut and folded in half to make my card base, I also printed the same patterned paper onto the reverse of the card before cutting.

I printed a paper from the blue and one from the classic kit onto pearl paper and used a CREAlies no5 die to make my flowers.

Ribbon and pearls are from MeiFlower.

Off to do some Christmas present wrapping now, not my favourite job in the world so tends to get left until it has to be done, but as some of them need delivering later I have to get stuck in.

Polkadoodles Quickie Christmas

2011-12-09T09:00:00.001Z

It was my turn to pick the challenge over at Polkadoodles this week and I decided to go with

Quickie Christmas Cards

You know what it's like, you suddenly realise there is only two weeks to go to the big day and you still haven't made all your Christmas cards, (unless you're super duper organised, which I am not) so I want to see quick, simple cards, with not too many layers or embellishments, something that you can easily make a lot of in a short space of time.

I used the trees and reindeer images from a Sundae of Seasons, layered them up in Photoshop and coloured a sky background, I then printed them straight onto card, cut, folded, added a gorgeous saddle stitch ribbon and a couple of Jingle bells, both from MeiFlower, some glitter to the trees and layered up the reindeer's head, and there you have it, my very quick card.

The Jingle Bells are coloured with Promarkers and I added glossy accents to his nose.

Check out my teamies quick Christmas inspiration over on the Polkadoodles blog and you have until Sunday 18th December Noon GMT to get your entries in.

Pop Up Box Tutorial

2011-12-08T09:00:00.001Z

This week I have put together a step-by-step tutorial for my pop up box card.

If you like the look of it and fancy having a go at making one you will find the instructions over on the Teddy Bo Top Tip Tutorial Thursdays post.

If you try it out let me know and I will pop over to your blog and have a nosy!

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Incy Wincy Designs - Non Traditional Christmas Colours

Crafty Sentiments - Snowflakes

Jen's Digi Stamps - Anything but a standard card

Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT Challenge - #49 Snowflakes & Sparkle

Digi Makeover Challenge - must use digi - Cut out your digi image

Oh the weather outside is frightful....

2011-12-06T07:00:00.005Z

......but making cards is quite delightful! and there's only one place to go, - Teddy Bo, Teddy Bo, Teddy Bo!

If it's not rain lashing against the windows, it's hailstones, it's freezing, wet and windy so the best place to be is in the craft room although I do have to venture out to do some Christmas shopping today so boots, scarf and gloves are a must have I think.

Over at Teddy Bo this week we are half way through our White Christmas challenge, and I have a card to show you made with one of this week's new images. I love this image, it would be perfect to use for a husband, a wife Mum and Dad, Sister and Brother-in-law etc., etc., etc.

I decided to make a card for my hubby, who after seeing the sentiment saying wonderful husband, asked me if I had another one tucked away somewhere as it couldn't possibly be meant for him after all the moaning I do at him LOL!

Image TEDDYBOBEA_091 coloured in Photoshop

Kraft and white cardstock

CartUs - snowflakes embossing folder

Cuttlebug - Swiss dots embossing folder

Ribbon - MeiFlower

Lace - Stash

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Creative Card Crew - Tis The Season

Paper Take Weekly - Anything Goes

Tuesday Throwdown - #77 Celebrate The Season

Crafty Boots - Anything Goes

Heart Song Inspirations - Christmas and /or Red, Green, White

Make it Monday - always Anything Goes

Pollycraft - Christmas Fun

Divas by Design - #16 anything goes

This week's new releases

Pop over to the Teddy Bo Challenge blog and check out all the fabulous creations from my teamies.

You still have until Sunday 11th December to get your entries in for our White Christmas challenge and be in with the chance of winning the Fabulous Teddy Bo 10, your choice of ten images from the Teddy Bo store including this weeks new releases, a fabulous prize for sure!

.....And finally, the Teddy Bo Tombola.

This week's winners, drawn once again by my daughter Meg are...........

Helle and Jill if you could email me (putting Tombola in the subject line) with your contact details I will get your parcels in the post (click on view my complete profile for my email address.)

Only two more weeks of Tombola to go so if you would like to try your luck this week, then it's really easy, just leave a comment on this post containing the number you would like from the ones remaining.

1, 5, 6, 8

and if you are not sure what the tombola is all about check out the details here

Thanks for playing along and good luck!

Colette xx

Clipart Fairy Workshop

2011-12-04T17:47:00.001Z

Yesterday I mentioned that I would be going to the Clipart Fairy workshop (A big hi! to Donna, Sue, Josie, Anita and Lesley!) and would have more cards to show you today and finally here they are.
I've had visitors today and this afternoon have been looking after my grandson Charlie, while his big brother has gone on a Polar Express day out at Southport Railway Station, which is why I haven't managed to post these any earlier.

1. Wedding Card and Bag

The back of front of the card are held together with concertina pieces of card, so it's three dimensional.

An acetate fronted bag to hold the wedding card.

2. Happy Couple Card

The man's waistcoat and ribbon are Navy Blue, but for some reason look black in the pics.

3. Fore You

I love the bright colours in this one and the image reminds me of my hubby!, he doesn't play golf, but always has his tongue out when he is concentrating LOL!

4. Button it Flower Girl

Another one where I love the colours, and don't you think she looks like a right little mischievous madam!

5. Wedding Day

This one has so much going on I've had to add lots of pictures. The front flaps open to reveal the outfits and wording, on the back there is a pocket that would be suitable for a gift of money or Gift card, and it also opens like a regular card and has lovely matching inserts.

So there you have it five beautiful cards and a brilliant presentation bag.
Flowers and Metallic embellishment are from Wild Orchid Crafts, Ribbons and Gems from MeiFlower and all kits to make the cards can be purchased from The Clipart Fairy.

Clipart Fairy Quintet

2011-12-03T00:08:00.000Z

As you can see by the title I have five Clipart Fairy cards to show you today, I am getting to the point of having to write out and send my Christmas cards, so need to make sure I have enough, and yesterday I managed to add these five to my total.

I have used two of the Clipart Fairy's new sets, So Macho and Christmas Fairy which both have paper packs, alphas, printables and interactive kits within them.

My first card is made with the Christmas Fairy Post It kit, I used the editable version to add my own wording to the tag, and also printed the tag out a second time so that I could make a little pocket to hold a gift of money.

Ribbon and jingle bells - MeiFlower

My second card was made using the So Macho - Mat and Layer me Kit, which contains the square background, which you could use any way up, two buntings one with the word Merry, one blank, several word arts, oval frames, including one containing the image with decoupage, plenty of options to make lots of different cards from the one kit.

Ribbon and gems - MeiFlower

Next up is another Christmas Fairy card, using various papers, frame with image, and word art from the Christmas Fairy Kit and letters from the Sassy Fairy Alpha.

Star pin - Ribbon Girl

Ribbon and Charm - MeiFlower

Beads from stash.

I like to glue a bead onto the pointy end of pins so that they don't hurt anyone.

Another So Macho card, this time I made an easel card using papers from the paper pack, the oval frame and image and blank bunting from the Mat and Layer me kit and letters from the So Macho alpha set for the word snow.

Brads - MeiFlower

Freebie word art found here

And finally yet another Christmas Fairy card, using papers from the Christmas Fairy Kit, the Sassy Fairy Alpha and Sally the Christmas Fairy who I bought from Sassy Cheryl, as it is a good way of making the kit go further.

Ribbon and gems - MeiFlower

Now if that wasn't enough Clipart Fairy for you I am off to her workshop today, we usually make about six cards, so tomorrow you will be seeing the results of my labours.

There is a freebie Alpha and paper to collect on the Clipart Fairy blog and 25% off selected Christmas products at both the Printable and Interactive stores.

Also a 20% off everything Sale at MeiFlower which runs until Sunday 4th December.

Colette xx

Polkadoodles Secret Element Christmas Card challenge

2011-12-02T09:00:00.003Z

This weeks challenge theme has been chosen by Enfys and she wants to see Christmas cards for children that contain......

A Secret Element (something hidden that the child can discover)

I have made a Christmas card for my grandson Will, the bottom section of the card front is bowed out and behind the bear I have attached a little card lollipop holder and added a chocolate lollipop. I have also made up a little verse for the inside of the card to let him know there is a hidden treat. I have used images from the Beary Cold section of Magical Winter CD 2 , and added glitter to parts of the bear and some of the snow.

You can just about see the side of the lollipop tucked behind the bear.

Pop over to the Polkadoodles blog and check out the rest of the fabulous inspiration from my teamies.

You have until Sunday 11th December Noon GMT to get your entries in, we look forward to seeing what fantastic secret elements you can come up with.

Die-liciously Christmas

2011-12-01T07:00:00.012Z

Today I thought I'd show you a couple more Teddy Bo cards I have made over the last week.

The engagement card was made for a family friend whose son and girlfriend surprised them all by announcing their engagement a couple of weeks ago. Last Saturday they had a big family dinner to celebrate and my friend wanted a special card with their names and date of the engagement. I came up with an idea of the image I would like, scribbled it down and sent it off to Gayle at Teddy Bo Towers with a begging letter, beseeching her to turn my scribble into some sort of gorgeousness.

Here is my scribble

and here is the finished card using Gayle's fabulous image, which is available at the Teddy Bo and Co store.

TEDDYBOBEA_089 coloured in Photoshop

Papers - Gorgeous set 5 - Clipart Fairy

MS punch - deep edge garden trellis

Flowers - Creative Treasures

Heart Charm - MeiFlower

Diamonte stem and feather - stash

I have added diamond stickles to the 'diamond' in the ring.

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Crafty Purple Frog - For Someone Special

Paper Crafting Journey - Anything Goes

Make it Monday - always Anything Goes

My second card is for Fairytale Friday (I have Polkadoodle on fridays so added it today instead) and is just pure self indulgence on my part. I have loads of fabulous Memory Box dies, and I couldn't wait to use them. I have managed to sneak a couple in on some cards recently, but I was so desperate to use them that I decided to make a card and overload it with as many of my die-cut shapes as possible, and this is the result,
it's probably way over the top, but I couldn't help myself I just had to do it LOL!

Image TEDDYBEA_101 - coloured in photoshop

Background paper - Clipart Fairy -Gorgeous 3

Winterland Tree, Frosty and Frostyville border dies- Memory Box

Charm from stash.

Lots and lots of Glamour dust, you should see how it sparkles in real life!

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Partytime Tuesdays - #44 Anything Goes

Going Grey With Scrap-Creations - Christmas

Paper Shelter Challenge - #42 anything goes

I went to see The Saw Doctors (a fabulous Irish band that most of you have probably never heard of!) at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on Tuesday evening, and after all the dancing and singing, (it's the kind of concert where the whole audience sings along (badly in my case LOL!) with every song, and dances their way through the whole gig) I was totally shattered yesterday. After teaching a card class in the morning, I spent the afternoon, snuggled up on the settee watching back to back Christmas movies on the Christmas 24 channel, pure heaven!
Feeling much more relaxed and refreshed and ready to get stuck in again today, which is a good job as I have a busy few days ahead of me now.

If you want to join in with my Teddy Bo Tombola, details are on my previous post, and check out Nela's blog, as her advent calendar starts today and there will be something new added each day, including tutorials, patterns, card shapes etc., link is in side bar.

Teddy Bo Tuesday - A White Christmas

2011-11-29T07:00:00.009Z

Will we or won't we, that's the big question, will we have a White Christmas, probably not! I love snow when it's falling and fresh on the ground, but once it turns to ice or slush then I'm not so keen, but I would love to wake up on Christmas morning and see a beautiful snowy day outside my window. I'm lucky enough not to have to leave the house on Christmas Day, my family come to me, (on the downside I do have to cook Christmas dinner for everyone though!). It wouldn't be so nice for those that have to travel to relatives houses for their Christmas dinner if it was snowy or icy.

Anyway all this is leading me onto the Teddy Bo Challenge this week which is

A White Christmas

We would love to see your interpretation of this theme, and if you need a little help, pop over to the Teddy Bo Challenge Blog and take at look at the fabulous inspiration from the DT.

I have used one of this weeks new images, and also borrowed a hat from one of the other new releases, I'm sure they won't mind though LOL!

Image - TEDDYBO_157 Coloured in Photoshop

Hat borrowed from TEDDYBO_158 and made to fit with a bit of photoshop jiggery- pokery

Blue card base - Nitwits Frost'n'flakes

Ribbon - MeiFlower

Card shape - GoKreate die

La Rue Flourish - Memory Box die

Embossing folder - Papermania - Snowflakes

Lots of Glamour Dust

I found a beautiful poem by Alice E Chase, called Baby's First Christmas and used it inside my card.

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Cheerful Stamp Pad - "Who`s Wearing Santa`s Hat"

Craft Your Passion - Tis the Season... (Anything Holiday or Winter related)

Daisy Doodles Creative Challenge - (must use digi) - Christmas

Forever Friends - must include animal - White and Sparkles

Get Hippity with Ippity - Embossing

Hooked on Crafts -Winter Wonderland

Karens Doodles - Non Traditional Christmas Colours

Ooh La La Creations - Lots of Sparkle

This week's new releases

You have until Sunday 11th December Midnight GMT to get your entries into our challenge with a chance to win the TEDDY BO 10, a fabulous prize of ten Teddy Bo images of your choice.

From 1st December Nela, one of my Teddy Bo Teamies will be running an advent calendar on her blog,

each day there will be a new workshop with instructions for various items including packaging, table decorations, card shapes and more and on the 24th there will be candy. Check out the link in my sidebar.

.....And finally, the Teddy Bo Tombola.

This week's winners, drawn once again by my daughter Meg are...........

Kirsty-Anne and Dizzy Di, if you could email me (putting Tombola in the subject line) with your contact details I will get your parcels in the post (click on view my complete profile for my email address.)

If you would like to try your luck in the tombola this week, then it's really easy, just leave a comment on this post containing the number you would like from the ones remaining.

1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 15

and if you are not sure what the tombola is all about check out the details here

Thanks for playing along and good luck!

Colette xx

Clipart Fairy Nature Boy

2011-11-26T16:58:00.003Z

Four weeks today it's Christmas Eve, how scary is that?!!! I have friends and family who have bought all their Christmas pressies, have them wrapped and have written out their cards, but all I have so far is a couple of gifts. I was just about to type that next Saturday I am going out to do my Christmas shopping when I realised that I have a Clipart Fairy workshop that day, and of course crafting has to come first LOL! Thank goodness for internet shopping hehe!

Today I have two cards to show you using the Nature Boy Large Frame Kit, one for a boy and the other for a girl.

This large kit contains 28 Jpeg 12 x 12 papers; 1 frame with a transparent centre (so you can add things behind it) 1 frame with a white centre (so you can add things on it) the word art "Have an awesome day"The Nature Boy Super Frame, this Super Frame can be re-sized to whatever you want and the decoupage bits will always fit. Please note the nature boy only comes to you inside the frame.
PNG card base; 2 PNG inserts including 1 with a blank oval & 1 plain; 3 PNG circle sentiments for birthday & best wishes and all for only £2.65.

I printed out some of the papers from the kit onto card and then matted and layered them to make up my design. I used the super frame with decoupage for the front of card, and cut a slightly larger oval from one of the printed papers to mat it onto, I printed out the sentiment circle twice then added a plain blue circle with the 'awesome day' word art onto one of them. I inked around the edges of everything with a brown ink pad, and printed the designs for the inserts onto paper.

I am entering this card into the following challenges.

Sassy Cheryl's - #91 Anything Goes

Make it Monday - always Anything Goes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There is a good variety of colours in the kit, including a bright pink so I thought I would show how versatile the kit is by making a girlie card too, I just added a girlie graphic, there are lots to choose from in the Clipart Fairy store, I chose a cute Butterfly Angel.

For my easel card I once again printed various papers onto card and used them to mat and layer my design. Using the frame in the kit as a guide I made up a pink version adding word art from Wendy's wordart 1 and the Butterfly Angel 3B. I aslo glittered around the oval and parts of the butterfly angel. I printed a sheet of pearl paper with strips of plain orange and green from the kit, leaving part of it unprinted, and used this to die-cut the various parts of my flower. The flowers were made with a Die-namics Daisy Upsy Daisy die set and the swirl is from Sizzix flourishes and swirls set. I made up three little boxes for the inside, 1 decorative, 1 for the birthday sentiment and the other to write your message on. The stopper was cut with Martha Stewarts Deep Edge Punch Garden Trellis, and decorated with little coloured buttons from MeiFlower, which I thought picked up the spots in the backing papers.

I am entering this card into the following challenges.

Wags 'n Whiskers - Angel or Fairy

Fab 'n' Funky - #100 Happy Birthday
Flutterby Wednesdays - must include butterfly, fairy or angel - #181 Open
More Than Favors Wacky Wednesday - #60 birthday
My Mum's Craft shop - #33 things with wings

If you still have lots of Christmas cards to make then check out the Clipart Fairy's 25% off Christmas Sale in both the Printables and Regular store and if you need a present for a Crafty Friend, why not give them a Clipart Fairy Christmas Gift Voucher.

Polkadoodles Italian Christmas and Stamps giveaway

2011-11-25T09:00:00.001Z

Miria, our bellissima Italian teamie has set this weeks challenge:

An Italian Christmas

She wants to see Christmas projects made using the colours of the Italian flag, green, white and red.

It is also stashbox stamp week so the design team can use any rubber stamps from their stash and team it up with Polkadoodle products.

There is also a fabulous Polkadoodle Stamp giveaway.

I have used papers from Sundae of Seasons and Father Christmas from the Polkadoodles Christmas Fun Clear Stamp set. Image was coloured with Promarkers and I added glitter to his hat, trouser stripes and belt and Carole's soft stuff to his furry bits. The mats are made using X-Cut nested Bookplate dies, and I used a snowflake embossing folder on the white strip. Ribbon from MeiFlower.

Head over to the Polkadoodles blog and check out the rest of the 'bellissima' creations from my teamies.

All challenge entries must be in by Sunday 4th December Noon GMT

Teddy Bo Two-sday and Tombola!

2011-11-22T06:00:00.012Z

Did you see what I did there, hehe! What I was trying to tell you with the silly title is that today you get not one, but two Teddy Bo Creations from me!

We are half way through the latest challenge...

Christmas but Red and Green must not be seen!

My first project is a card made using one of this weeks new images.

Image - TEDDYBEA_170 coloured in Photoshop

All papers - Frost N Flakes- Nitwits

Snowflake - Memory Box Die.

Ivory Ribbon and pretty button - MeiFlower

brads - stash

I am going to enter this card into the following challenges.

Forever Friends - must include animal - Christmas is Coming

Make it Monday - always Anything Goes

Create Me Pink Challenges - #4 Use A Digi

Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT Challenge - #47 Winter Blues

Crafty Emma - #62 Snowflakes

I also decided to have a go at making a hanging ornament. I saw a few of these around blog land last Christmas and decided now was as good a time as any to have a try. It is made up of 20 circles of card, 5 of the ones through the middle contain the Teddy Bea image, the ones in between have a glittered die cut snowflake, with a sparkly gem in the centre and I have added a gem between each section. A big bow, beads and a beaded tassel finish it off.

Image - TEDDYBEA_165 Coloured in Photoshop

Papers - Various Nitwit Kits

Snowflake die - Marianne Creatables

Ribbon and Gems-MeiFlower

Tassel - Crafty Devils

Beads - stash

I am entering my bauble into the following challenges

Inspire Me Fridays - always anything goes

Winter Wonderland -must be Christmas - any cute image

Don't forget to check out the new images in store this week.

and make sure you pop over to the challenge blog to feast your eyes upon all the fabulous inspiration from the design team this week.

Now onto the Teddy Bo Tombola.

This week's winners, drawn by my daughter Meg are...........

Marion82 and Jo, if you could email me (putting Tombola in the subject line) with your contact details I will get your parcels in the post (click on view my complete profile for my email address.)

If you would like to try your luck in the tombola this week, then it's really easy, just leave a comment on this post containing the number you would like from the ones remaining.

1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 14, 15

and if you are not sure what the tombola is all about check out the details here

Thanks for playing along,

Colette xx

Clipart Fairy Snoozeville

2011-11-19T11:54:00.002Z

Today I have two Snoozeville cards to show you, one is the ready to print kit, which works exactly as it says on the packet LOL!, you just print and put it together, adding you own stamp to the card with your embellishments, the second uses the interactive version. With the interactive version you get the same parts as the printable, plus 30 papers, and it's interactive because using your graphics programme you can change the size of all or any of the parts.

I have some friends who don't feel confident in their card designing abilities and don't have or know how to use graphics programmes, so they really love the printables, not only is the design done for you but they are quick and easy to make up and I always think it is handy to have some in, (even if you design your own cards), in case you need a card in a hurry.

The Snoozeville Large Frame printable kit costs 80p for which you get - pdf and jpeg versions of the card base, topper and decoupage, and matching inserts (one editable to add your own wording and one containing wording) the finished card measures approximately 21 x 18cms so it's a good size.

I used gold glitter around the card base and oval, attached a couple of eyelets either side of the oval, threaded through and tied green and yellow string from MeiFlower, and added a couple of die cut shapes (spellbinders Ironworks Motifs) to the bottom corners.

The insert reads "but some habits are just too hard to break!"

On the other hand if you prefer to design your own card layouts then The Snoozeville kit is for you, it costs £2.65 and contains - 30 Jpeg 12 x 12 papers; 1 frame with a transparent centre (so you can add things behind it) 1 frame with a white centre (so you can add things on it) the word arts, The Snoozing Man Super Frame, this Super Frame can be re-sized to whatever you want and the decoupage bits will always fit. Please note the snoozing man only comes to you inside the frame. PNG card base; 3 PNG inserts including 1 with an image, 1 with a blank oval & 1 plain, so plenty of choices when designing your card.

I re-sized the card base to fill an A4 sheet and used it as a portrait card, I sized the oval frame topper to fit my card front, chose the blank oval which I made smaller and then added the appropriate word art to each. I also printed out a couple of the papers from the kit, which I used to decorate the front of the card base, I added Grosgrain ribbon from MeiFlower, around the strip of card before attaching to the card with foam pads. Both ovals were glittered and then I added brads (from Stash) and metallic brown string also from MeiFlower, to the smaller oval and a large brad to the main oval which I used to hold the hanging sentiment panel in place. The large oval was fixed to the card with foam pads, the smaller hangs free.

I personally like to print a design onto the reverse of my card, to give the inside some interest, I also used matching papers to make up a message panel.

So there you have it Ready to Print or Interactive, what's your preference?

If you fancy some Clipart Fairy freebie papers, then pop over to her blog, there are a couple here, and here.

Polkadoodles Shaped Christmas Card

2011-11-18T09:00:00.008Z

Ruth has set the theme for this weeks challenge on the Polkadoodles blog and she wants to see cards or projects that are

Christmassy and Shaped (no squares or rectangles allowed).

This time around I used the penguin from Magical Winter 1 CD, printed him out on the right hand side of A4 card, folded the card so that his flipper touched the fold, then cut through two layers at once, (except for where his flipper touched the fold and a couple of centimetres at the bottom). I decoupaged his flippers and scarf, adding some pompom trim at the bottom of the scarf and tucking a sentiment panel under his flipper.

Look out for Nikky on Create and Craft this coming week ,I think she's on Wednesday 23rd, it will be the first showing of her fab new CD Pretty Tuff, which is a boy version of Pretty Sweet, there is some fabulous images and digi stamps on their as well as lots of lush papers. I've done some samples, see if you can recognise them!

Pop over to the Polkadoodles blog and check out the rest of the fabulous Shaped Christmas inspiration from my teamies.

You have until 27th November Noon GMT to enter the challenge, looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Teddy Bo Tuesday and Tombola!

2011-11-15T00:47:00.003Z

It's time for a new challenge over on the Teddy Bo blog this week and this time around Team B are hosting. Their challenge is

Christmas but Red and Green must not be seen!

We want to see all your Christmassy creations but without the traditional red and green, if you pop over to the challenge blog you can find all the details and have a look at the fabulous creations by the rest of my teamies.

For my card I chose to go with.......... Lilac and Turquoise LOL!, you should have known!

I have used TEDDYBEA_017 coloured in Photoshop and sitting

on a chair which is one of this weeks new graphics.

Papers, present and word art are from Nitwits Still Joyful Collection

Poinsettia and Circle dies are Marianne Creatables.

I have embroidered a pattern around the image using turquoise metallic thread and lilac beads.

Check out what's new in store

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meg drew the winners for this weeks Tombola and they are

So June and Maritha if you could contact me with your details (email address in profile) putting Tombola Winner in the subject line I will get your parcels out to you as soon as possible.

If you would like to try your luck in the tombola this week, then it's really easy, just leave a comment on this post containing the number you would like from the ones remaining.

1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15

and if you are not sure what the tombola is all about check out the details here

You have until Sunday 27th November Midnight to enter the challenge and be in with a chance of winning the Teddy Bo 10, that's right you get to choose 10 fabulous digital images from the Teddy Bo and Co store. The two runners up each win one digital image of their choice.

Cutie Pie Challenge

2011-11-14T14:56:00.000Z

Hi Everyone, just a quickie from me, the challenge starting today over on the Cutie Pie blog is

Bears

and one of the sponsors is Teddy Bo and Co,

who is offering a prize of 3 digi stamps from the ones the DT have used,

the other prize is from Crafty Emma's store

and is a £10 voucher not inc. postage.

Hazel who is on the Cutie Pie DT as well as the Teddy Bo DT asked around at the towers to see if anyone would like to guest design and a few of us took her up on it, so if you pop over to the Cutie Pie challenge blog you can see exactly what the Teddy Bo and Cutie Pie girls came up with.

For my card I used -

Skating Bea digi-stamp – teddybo.com

Papers – nitwitscollections.com – Comfort and Joy

Dies – X-cut Nesting dies- Ornate Frame and Bookplate

Gems, ribbon and jingle bells – meiflower.co.uk

The challenge runs for two weeks so there is plenty of time to get your entries in and with such fabulous prizes on offer what are you waiting for!

Good Luck!

Clipart Fairy Duo

2011-11-12T06:45:00.000Z

Today I've got two Clipart Fairy cards to show you, one of them uses a kit, and the other papers and clipart.

For this card I used the 'This Much Kit' which is only £2 and contains 14 Jpeg 12 x 12 papers; 1 frame with a transparent centre (so you can add things behind it) 1 frame with a white centre (so you can add things on it) 1 plate stopper in case you fancy making an easel card or could be used as a tag; 3 curved word arts and a From: word art and the Girl in a Super Frame, this Super Frame can be re-sized to whatever you want and the decoupage bits will always fit.

I made a tall tent fold card, and cut a piece from the front, I then added a scalloped border and the oval frame with decoupaged image to the bottom of the card. When the card is standing, the front rests on the base of the oval and the inside of the card can be seen behind it.
I used a Martha Stewart punch for the scalloped border, glamour dusted around the oval frame and on the girls hat and skirt, and then finished it off with polka dot ribbon and green gems from MeiFlower.

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My second card uses papers from the Simply Christmas Papers 4 pack, another bargain at 80p for 13 12x12 jpeg papers, a lot of these papers do not have a Christmas theme so could be used all year round. There are another three packs available, all the same price and containing the same amount of papers, but each has a different range of colours. The image comes from the Colour Frosty Longstockings set, you get five snowmen each in a different colour for only 65p.

I layered up and matted various papers from the kit onto a six inch square card blank, I used a Martha Stewart punch for the snowflakes which have been punched from silver foil card, sprayed with spray mount and liberally sprinkled with silver glitter. The sentiment was computer generated and the cute little buttons I got from MeiFlower at the NEC last weekend.

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Later today I'm off to my local garden centre to buy some fish. As we all suffer from allergies here, we don't have pets with fur or feathers, so we go for those with scales. Over the years we have had both tropical and cold water, and when the last of our goldfish, went swimming off to that great fish tank in the sky recently I decided that I would like to go tropical again. A couple of weeks ago we cleaned out the tank, added a heater and set it all up, so we are now ready to go and get some new residents. I think I'm just going to get a load of Neon Tetras as I love the way their bright colours catch your eye as the dart about the tank.

Have a lovely weekend!

Colette xx

Polkadoodles Swirls, Pearls and Pretty Pastels

2011-11-11T09:00:00.002Z

This weeks challenge over on the Polkadoodles blog has been set by Daniele, who wants to see cards or projects that contain.

Pearls, Swirls and Pretty Pastels

There is going to be a fabulous Letraset prize too for one lucky entrant.

For this weeks card I have used papers, image and sentiment from the Pretty Sweet CD. I also used X-cut scalloped rectangle dies, a Bazzill Jewel template for the swirls, and pearls from MeiFlower.

Head over to the Polkadoodles challenge blog, check out the Fabulous Letraset Giveaway and the fantastic inspiration from the rest of my teamies.

You have until Sunday 20th November Noon GMT to show us your creations containing swirls and pearls, looking forward to seeing them.

Teddy Bo Tuesday, Tombola and a new baby!

2011-11-08T01:00:00.006Z

Well he's finally arrived, Sunday evening at 4 minutes past seven, five days late, but when he decided it was time he didn't hang around, just three hours from the first contraction to the birth, weighed in at 7lb 15ozs.

Let me introduce you to my new grandson Charlie.

The first picture was taken in the hospital, lighting was pretty grotty and everything came out quite red. Second one was taken when he got home.

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We are half way through our pastel challenge over on the Teddy Bo blog, and I have just about managed to fit in a card between baby being born sunday evening and running around today to make sure everything was ready for him coming home. Although I haven't had time to do the inside yet.

I have used TEDDYBEA_165

Coloured in Photoshop

Papers - Nitwits Joyful Hearts

Doily - Die-namics High Tea Party Doily die

Gems - MeiFlower

I drew the swirl pattern on the dress and decorated the bauble in Photoshop and tried to make her boots look silver, as they reminded me of a pair of boots my daughter Meg once had. She gets her shoes specially made through the hospital, as she can't wear normal shoes due to the shape and size of her feet, (she's now 21 and Will (6) has bigger feet than her). We used to let her pick her own colour and design, but always tried to guide her towards black, white or some other sensible colour, but one year out of the blue she asked for silver and the bloke at the hospital managed to get her some made in silver leather,it looked like her feet were wrapped in tin foil.I hated them as she only ever had one pair at a time and she had to wear them for school and everything, but she loved them and that was all that really mattered.

Meg Disneyland Paris 2002

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Check out the new releases in store this week

You still have until Sunday 14th November midnight GMT to get your entries in and the prize is a fabulous ten Teddy Bo and Co digi images of the winners choice.

Pop over to the Teddy Bo Challenge blog and check out the rest of the inspiration from my fab teamies!

Now onto this weeks Tombola winners

the two lucky peeps randomly picked by my daughter Meg are

Karen who wanted no.2 and Maria who chose no.4

Ladies if you could contact me with your address details I will get your prizes out to you, you'll find my email address in my profile. Please put Tombola in the subject line.

Still six more weeks of prizes so don't forget to leave a comment and add your lucky number from the selection below to have a chance of being picked next week.

1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

Good luck!

I'm entering my card into the following challenges

Paper Shelter Challenge - #38 Christmas fun

Pixie Cottage - Christmas and/or sketch

Sweet 'n' Sassy - use a digi -Christmas/holiday theme

Daisy Doodles Creative Challenge - (must use digi) - Anything goes with a Digi

Forever Friends - must include animal - Bling Bling

Make it Monday - always Anything Goes

Tree-Mendous!

2011-11-05T07:30:00.001Z

I'm off to Birmingham today to the HobbyCraft show at the NEC, I'm hoping to catch up with Nikky (Polkadoodles) Mei from MeiFlower and Claire, one of my fellow teamies on the Teddy Bo Team, can't wait! On top of that I get to buy some new craft goodies WooHoo!

But first I have a card to show you, this time using the Tree-Mendous Christmas kit from the Clipart Fairy, £2.00 gets you 13 Jpeg 12 x 12 papers (none of the papers have a Christmas theme which makes them perfect for all year round) 1 frame with a transparent centre (so you can add things behind it) 1 frame with a white centre (so you can add things on it) 2 buntings, one blank; PNG base shape; PNG base insert shape both with and without the white oval and with and without the image; 'Christmas Dressed Up' in a Super Frame, this Super Frame can be re-sized to whatever you want and the decoupage bits will always fit.

I'm lovin' all the bright colours and quirky graphics in her kits at the moment, they really appeal to me.

I used various bits of the kit to make a gate-fold card with the main image inside behind the doors. the front 'doors' I made from papers in the kit. I left the front quite plain because everything is going on inside the card. Inside there is lots of glittering, although it doesn't show up very well in the pics. The red part of the baubles are made with my new Memory Box die, it's quite delicate once it's cut. I sprayed it with adhesive and sprinkled with red glitter then added gems to the centres of the snowflakes. I glued it onto white card and then cut around to get the contrasting base. I cut out the bunting, added some green metallic cord and shaped it so that it looks like the girl is holding it up, I added contrasting gems to each section.
The ribbon, gems and metallic cord are all from MeiFlower.

Have a lovely weekend and if you're lucky enough to be going to Birmingham then have fun and spend lots!

I'm entering this card into the following challenges

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - must be Christmas - #45 Bright Colours and/or Sparkle
Card Makin' Mamas - die cuts
Inspire Me Fridays - always anything goes
Sweet n' Sassy Digi Challenge - must use digi - Christmas/holiday theme

Polkadoodles Shaped Card challenge

2011-11-04T09:00:00.006Z

This weeks Polkadoodle challenge theme has been chosen by Fliss and she wants to see

Shaped Cards - for any occasion (no squares or rectangles allowed).

I love making shaped cards, and for this challenge chose to make one of my trifold shapes. I have used the Pretty Sweet CD for all the papers and the image. The little girl has been coloured in Photoshop, and I have paper pieced her clothes with more papers from the CD. The sentiment is also from the same CD. The scalloped oval frame was cut using a GoKreate die and a nestie, the scalloped border is a Marianne Creatables die and the lilac oval has been embossed with a cuttlebug daisies folder.The gems and ribbon are from MeiFlower the flowers, and beaded pin are from stash.

I have used my favourite colours of lilac and turquoise/blue.

Don't forget to head over to the Polkadoodles Challenge Blog and check out all the fabulous inspiration from my fellow teamies.

You have until Sunday 13th November Noon GMT to get your entries in, we look forwarding to see all your wonderful shaped creations.

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Charisma Cardz - Cutesy Project
Pixie Dust Studio - Paper Piecing
Crafty Ribbons - BINGO* (punch/dies - flowers - ribbon)
Little Darlings Challenges - #10 not square

Did you know.....

2011-11-02T07:00:00.007Z

that Gayle who draws my favourite bears Bo and Bea also produces other images under the name of FairyD, which are available in the FairyD section of the Teddy Bo store.

I thought I would share with you a couple of cards I made using two of her FairyD images.

Image : FAIRYD_SANTA

Coloured in Photoshop

Papers - Nitwits and sentiment - Still Joyful Hearts

snowflake - Marianne snowflake die

Blue Crystal sticker - Poundland

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT Challenge - #44 Non Traditional &/Or Distressed Christmas

Meljens Designs - Christmas

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In my imagination I have just opened up the box and unwrapped this bauble to put on my tree only to find this cute little elf snuggled up and fast asleep inside it!

Image - FAIRYD_Christmas bulb lineart

Coloured in Photoshop

Kraft card - digital download from Pink Petticoat

Papers - Nitwits - Comfort and Joy

Holly leaves - CREAlies CL CS04 die

Ribbon, metallic cord and gems - MeiFlower

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Crafty Sentiments - More Than One Fold (Twist, no easel cards)

Digital Tuesday - include a digital element - #135 Cute & Cuddly

Paper Take Weekly - Anything Goes (+ a bit of bling if you like)

Try It On Tuesday - Unusual Shaped Cards

Make it Monday - always Anything Goes

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Pop over to the Teddy Bo and Co store, and on the left hand side underneath the bits and bobs store you will find the FairyD store.

It's also Wordy Wednesday over at Teddy Bo, if you are looking for some inspirational quotes then check out what Edna has come up with this week.

And talking of Teddy Bo, if you want to enter this weeks Teddy Bo Tombola, scroll down to the previous post, add a comment pick a number and you could be one of next weeks two lucky winners.

Teddy Bo Tuesday, Turkey and Tombola!

2011-11-01T06:00:00.004Z

Another Tuesday and another day closer to Christmas, yes only 54 days to go, are you organised, have you started your Christmas cards yet or nearly finished them? Of course, we have Bonfire night coming up in a couple of days and our American friends have Thanksgiving to celebrate first with only a few more weeks to wait for that.

The challenge over on the Teddy Bo Blog this week is

Pastels

I just fell in love with this cute little fella, (and not a bear in sight), he's one of this weeks new releases and I just couldn't resist him, so here he is, maybe a bit brighter than pastel, but close enough I hope!

Image - TEDDYBOBEA_082_turkey

Coloured in Photoshop

Papers - Yummy 4 - Clipart Fairy

Seam binding - Ribbon Girl

Peach string - MeiFlower

Too cute to cook circle and Eat Ham! sign made by me.

This weeks new releases

and there is a fabulous 25% off the digital store all week to celebrate the boss lady's birthday.

Pop over here to get the code.

Now onto the first winners in my

Teddy Bo Tombola,

the two lucky peeps are...

Vicki and Roma please contact me with your details, you'll find my email address in my profile.

Don't forget to leave a comment on this post, and add one of the remaining numbers and you could be a lucky winner next week.

Here's all the prizes wrapped, before they were numbered.

We still have fourteen left, so leave a comment on this post and add a number from the list below, two new winners will be randomly selected next week.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

Check out the prizes here

Pop over to the Teddy Bo Challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from my teamies, you'll even get to see some bears LOL!

I'm entering my card into the following challenges.

Paper Pretties - Use a Sentiment
Aud Sentiments Challenge - Make Us Laugh

Crazy!!!

2011-10-29T13:23:00.001+01:00

Now when I say Crazy, I'm not actually talking about myself, although there are a few people out there who would probably disagree LOL!
Crazy is the name of a collection of printables, shapers and papers from the Clipart Fairy. I love the bright vivid colours and as well as using one of the printable kits I also wanted to do something with the papers, so today I have made two cards.

My first card is made using the Crazy Super Oval Frames Kit with bunting from the square frame kit.

I die cut some buttons from a Marianne Creatables die, covered them in glossy accents and left them to dry while I cut out and decoupaged my two oval sections. I joined the ovals together with a small piece of double sided tape at the top and a concertina of card at the bottom to hold the two sections apart.

I had to trim a small straight section across the bottom of the two ovals so that my card would stand, it's only a little amount and isn't too noticeable.

I lined up the buttons at the top, punched holes through all layers then attached the buttons to the card using different colours of wax string from MeiFlower, I added the 'happy' bunting and a computer generated birthday panel.

I reduced the size of one of the ovals in my graphics programme and added some wording to make a message panel for the back of the card.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges

Poodles Parlour- let's hear if for the boys theme

Moving Along With The Times - No Girls Allowed

Whimsy Inspiration - buttons

Digital Tuesday - include a digital element - #134 Buttons & Twine

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My second card uses the Shaper set and papers from the Crazy papers set, this set contains 23 12x12 jpeg papers for only £1.50, which I think is great value.

I printed one of the shaper sections over to the right hand side of my card, then scored down the left hand side of the shaper so that some of the edge touched the score line. I folded the card and used pegs to hold the two layers together while I cut through both layers at once.

I reduced the size of the shaper in my graphics programme and added my wording for the sentiment panel, this is attached to the card with foam pads.

After printing various paper designs onto a sheet of paper I used MFT Die-namics dies (rolled flowers - Gardenia, Daisy and Mum) and Fancy Flourish and used them to decorate around the sentiment panel. There is also a bit of glamour dust sprinkled here and there and pearls from MeiFlower in the flower centres!

I would like to enter this card into these challenges

Aud Sentiments Challenge - Make Us Laugh (sentiment)
Paper Crafting Journey - Use a Digi (everything except for pearl and glitter LOL!)
Paper Shelter Challenge - #37 Anything goes
Make it Monday - always Anything Goes