Fame at Last LOL!

I'm in a magazine, oooh wonder if I'm the centrefold!!!  LOL! (I haven't seen it yet).
A couple of months ago I was asked by Nikky (Polkadoodles) if I would make some sample cards for Complete Cardmaking magazine to go with the collection of papers and images that she was providing for the Free CD. In all I made six items (seven if you include the roses in the birdcage, birdcage and roses are both on the disk with tutorials on how to make them), four cards, an icicle box and a birdcage.

As the magazine goes on sale today I thought I would share a couple of them with you.

This is one of my swing tent cards, I've done a quick instruction leaflet for this card fold which you can find below, or go to the Polkadoodles store and download. The ribbons are from Ribbon Box, the heart charm came from a necklace bought in Poundland. I used pearl cardstock and paper for printing the backing paper and images onto, (the photos don't show it but they have a lovely shimmery look to them) and black metallic card for matting. I also coloured in the brides bouquet with Promarkers.

A card for a Birthday princess.

I love these colours together and that crown desperately needed blinging up, so there are lots of gems and stickles on it.
The ribbon is from Mei Flower, Silver card candy from Polkadoodles and gems and stickles from stash.
I thought I would enter this card into the following challenge
Crafts and Me - #41 birthday



I will try and post the others when I get a bit more time.

Teddy Bo Tuesday, but not for me !

Hi everyone, Teddy Bo Tuesday has come around again, but as we now have a large DT we have been divided into two teams, Us oldies (and I mean length of time we have been on the DT, not our age LOL!) are Team A and the newbies are Team B. This time around the challenge is being hosted by Team B, so no challenge creation from me today.

I'll give you all the details of the challenge in case you would like to join in. The theme this time is

Anything But a Card,

 bags, boxes, bookmarks and even things that don't begin with B LOL! Just remember you have to use a Teddy Bo and Co image on your creation.

The challenge is being sponsored by 

Crafts 4 You

and as well as a fabulous package of yumminess from them, the overall winner will also be able to pick three images from the Teddy Bo store. The runners up get to choose one image each.

Head over to the challenge blog and have a look at all the amazing creations that Team B have come up with, you won't want to miss them!

Before you go - I just couldn't resist - it's not for the challenge, but it just wouldn't be Teddy Bo Tuesday without a Teddy Bo project of some description to show, so I have thrown together a card, (last minute thing so used a ready coloured image  - aren't they a godsend?. 

I got to play with my new Marianne Designables embossing and cutting folder, printed some Clipart Fairy papers from the 30, 40, 50 collection and the Faded Floral Fabric shaper set. and used the flower from the Button it pink flower interactive kit, printed it and then used it as a template to cut the layers out of my chosen papers. A Martha Stewart border punch, pink lace and small paper rose from stash, a Marianne die for the leaves and a touch of glamour dust finished it off. I haven't decorated the inside yet as it just got too late.

Don't forget to have a look at all the fabulous new images in store this week, there are so many cuties in there it will be difficult to pick a favourite and with designs ranging from summer to halloween and Christmas there is something for nearly every season too.

What's new in store this week?!?!?!

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

Don't forget the challenge runs until midnight (GMT) Sunday 10th July, so there is plenty of time enter, I'm looking forward to seeing your fabulous creations.

The Big 4-0

Whenever I make a card I start out with an idea of how I want it to look and then end up with something totally different. Sometimes it's the layout that changes, other times - as in the card below - it's the colour scheme, but whatever it is, I never end up with the card I had originally planned in my head.

I like to make my card up in Photoshop before I print and cut anything so I can play around with papers and images until I get the design I want (one of the reasons why I love using digital products - no waste!)

I decided to use the Oh No the Big 40 graphics and 30, 40, 50 paper collection by the Clipart Fairy which are pink, but once I had it laid out I wasn't happy with it. I cut out the girl, and then added Jade numbers from the Jade Linen Alphabet set, but once again it didn't look quite right, then I found this very pretty backing paper in The Girls R back in Town paper set, and knew I just had to use it, things were starting to look up, I felt like I was finally getting somewhere, but the Jade numbers were too green for the bluey green flowers in the paper and none of the other Alphabet sets I had were suitable. I popped over to the store and found the new Silver alphabet and numbers set, which I knew would be perfect, and five minutes later it was downloaded and ready to use (another one of the many reasons I love digis LOL!). I printed the silver numbers and backing paper onto pearl card and although the photo's don't show it, in real life they look very silvery. The sentiment on the front came from the female family members birthday wordart set.

I added a black border made using a Martha Stewart punch, ribbon and gems from stash, a couple of crystal headed pins from Creative Treasures and glamour dust to the dress and boots. The card was made for a friend of a friend's wife, I hope she likes it!

I am going to enter this into the following challenges;

Glitter Geeks - Handbags & gladrags
Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes
Paper Crafting Journey - Anything goes
Rainbow Lady's - Use a digi.
A Spoonful Of Sugar - #157 Ribbons & Bows

Polkadoodle Stash Box Stamp Challenge

It's time for another of our Stashbox Stamp Challenges, and this week the theme set by Ruth is

Red, White and Blue

So get out your stamps and colouring mediums and show us what you've got, by the way you are allowed to use flesh and hair colours.

This week I've coloured a Sarah Kay image which was stamped for my by a friend (stamping is not my thing LOL!) with a mixture of Promarkers, Whisper and Zig pens (don't have enough of any one kind, because stamping is not my thing LOL! and I colour my digis in Photoshop), and made it up into a card using my new Fiskars Lace and Lattice corner and border punch for the red mat, another corner punch without the corner doodah (technical term!)to make the white scalloped borders, and a paper from the All Around and Everywhere CD. The butterfly is a Marianne Creatables die and the gingham ribbon and blue crystals are from stash.

Go check out the Polkadoodles challenge blog and see all the fabulous creations my teamies have come up with, and don't forget to enter the challenge, you have until midday Sunday 3rd July to enter - (OMG! it's nearly July, it will be Christmas before you know it LOL!)

I am entering my card in the following challenges:

Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT Challenge -  Use Red Somewhere on your Project

Die Cut Dreams - Red, White and Blue

Scrappy Frogs - Simply Red

Off the Wall Craftiness - Red, white & any shade of blue*.

Stamp Something - Celebrate with red, white & blue.

Craft Us Crazy - Red, white & blue and/or Summer theme
Penny's Paper-Crafty  - red white and blue

Still Blinging at Teddy Bo.

Well it's another Teddy Bo Tuesday and following on from our Bling it On challenge set last week, I have another blingin' creation for you today. Not a card this time though, today I have a hanging Christmas decoration.

I've used TeddyBea _101 for my Christmas decoration. No designer papers, but lots of dies, including Go Kreate large scalloped circles, lots of Marianne Creatables snowflakes, a Magnolia swirl and Spellbinders Create-a-Flake 1, also Cuttlebug embossing folder D'vine Swirls. Blue glitter ribbon and bow with ribbon rose from local craft shop, Aurora borealis crystals from Mei Flower, crystal headed pins from Creative Treasures and lots of glamour dust. The wordart on the back is an old freebie from Create with TLC


There are lots of scrummy new images in store, so head over there and check them all out.

What's new in store this week!

Don't forget you still have until Sunday midnight 26th June to enter our Bling it on challenge with the chance of winning a fabulous goody bag from our sponsor Creative Treasures, and if you are looking for inspiration then you need to visit the challenge blog to see all the fabulous creations the DT girls have come up with this week.

I am going to enter this in the following challenges;

Bah Humbug - Must be Christmas - Scarves & mittens.

Crafty Ann's - Christmas in June.

Bling It On  - Embossing

Sparkles Forum Christmas  - Snowman (hope Snowgirl/bear counts!)

Crafts and Me - #39 Bling

Divas by Design - #4 anything but a card

Clipart Fairy card and a couple of pics.

Happy Father's day to all the dads and grandads out there. Although today's card is not a Fathers day card, it does have something to do with fathers, as it's a card for a new baby, and let's face it ladies, this is not something we can produce without a little help from the father LOL!

I made the stepper card up using a mix of kits, the backing paper came from the Faded Fabric Mannequin set, the dresser drawers, hanger and baby outfit are from the Baby Girl Drawers with Decoupage set, the teddy bear comes from the B is for baby girl set and the Pink Baby Princess graphic is here.(I find images without mouths a little freaky so I had to draw one in LOL!) A Marianne Creatables die was used for the mat the baby is printed on, and I inked around the edges with a pink ink pad, the drawer handles are card candy. The message panel on the back is cut with the largest labels seventeen nestie, I also drew around part of the nestie and then cut it out to make the fancy bottom to my dresser, and again inked around the edges, decoupaged part of the teddy and the baby and added a bit of glamour dust to finish off.

Yesterday as part of my hubbies Father's Day present I took him on a 'behind the scenes' tour of the Mersey tunnels. It was a really fascinating tour, we travelled up and down at least a million steps (well that's what it felt like LOL!) and got to see the huge fans that keep the tunnel ventilated, the enormous shafts that bring the fresh air in and lots of other interesting things. The building the shaft and fans are housed in was designed in the 1920's and built in the early 30's and is very art deco, There are deco carvings around the outside walls of the building, but the whole interior is decorated in deco style too, and some of the doors, windows and floors are fabulous examples of the deco period. It is amazing to see all these original deco details in what is basically a huge chimney.
While we were down at the Pier head Eric took some pics of the Liver Buildings - there are also quite a lot of new modern buildings going up around there and he captured this picture of the old buildings reflected in the glass of a new building. I think it is fabulous and thought I would share it with you.

and here it is before it was cropped, buses and all

What do you think?

And if you have managed to make it to the end of this rather long post, then here is a piccy of my grandson Will who stayed here last night and after seeing me colouring in Photoshop yet again, wanted to have a go himself. He picked it up really quickly and became a bit of a whizz on the 'step backward' button, whenever he lost concentration and went too far outside the lines. I thought it was a brilliant effort for a first attempt, and at only 5 years old I think I'll have some major competition in the future LOL!

Ooooh nearly forget, there are a couple of new freebies on the Clipart Fairy blog here and here

I will be entering my card in the following challenges.

Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes

Southern Girls - Anything goes

Hooked on Crafts - Anything goes

All of a Flutter

Emma has chosen our theme for the Polkadoodles challenge this week and it is

All Of A Flutter

We would like to see your cards and projects containing pretty things with wings.

Before I show you my card for this challenge I would like to say a big congrats to

Hayley 

 who was the lucky winner of my blog candy from the Polkadoodles blog hop. Hayley if you can email me I will sort out getting your candy to you. 

This week I made quite a plain card and apart from a few flowers from stash and a Martha Stewart punch everything I used came from the All Around and Everywhere CD. I slightly curled the wings of the dragonfly, then using foam pads down the centre attached it to the card. When you open the card another dragonfly "pops out" to greet you, the inner dragonfly actually hovers about 7cms away from the card, unfortunately the pics don't show it off.  

I've tried to get a couple of pics from different angles to give you some idea of how it looks.

If you fancy joining our challenge this week then head over to the challenge blog for all the details and lots of gorgeousness from my fellow teamies.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Delightful Challenges - Anything goes
Southern Girls - Anything goes
Crafting for all Seasons - #3 Summer
Bearly Mine - #12 Anything Goes 
Going Grey With Scrap-Creations - Anything Goes
Top Tip Tuesday - Open Challenge

Bling It On!!!

This weeks Teddy Bo challenge has to be one of my favourites, the theme is-

Bling It On!

We want to see your sparkliest, blingiest creations, so go wild with the glitter, crazy with the gems, you can never have too much bling!

For this challenge we are being sponsored by the lovely Tracy at

http://www.creativetreasures.co.uk/

and look at the gorgeous goody bag she's got ready for the winner of the next challenge!!  MMMMMMMMM!!! :oD

The winner also gets 3 Teddy Bo & Co graphics of their choice and the two runners up get to choose one...x

You must use a Teddy Bo and Co image, but once again there are some fabulous new images in the store this week including the one I used on my card.

  

As soon as I saw this image I knew it was the one for me!

I cut out the shape twice and attached them at the top, scoring the back piece of card so that it opens like a tent card, (no gusset this time as it seemed to stand without splaying) both the back and front are covered  with a Debbi Moore paper. I bought the blue, glittery, self adhesive ribbon yonks ago from a local craft shop and have been dying to use it, and this challenge was perfect.

I added glamour dust to Bea's shoes, the fringing on her sleeve and the scalloped part of her headband, blue glitter to the headband details and a small diamond shaped rhinestone in the centre,  Her necklace is made from Nail Art crystals given to me by a friend, and the polka dot feather at the back of her hat and the blue fluffy one amongst the flowers came from a Primark hair clip. The flowers are from stash and also dusted with glamour dust, and to finish off I used Glossy Accents on the bear's noses, Bo's cufflink and the fasteners on the violin case, (knowing Bo, he probably keeps his butties in there LOL!).

Head over to the Teddy Bo challenge blog and check out my teamies, blinging creations, hopefully there will be lots to inspire you.

I am going to enter my card into the following challenges;

There's Magic in the Air -Pick 2 from: Flowers, Ribbon, Pearls/Gems and/or Die Cuts.

Make it Monday - Always anything goes

Crafty Emma - #40 Inspired by a Movie - Bugsy Malone

Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes
Poodles Parlour - Anything goes

Polkadoodles challenge #23

As there is only just over a week to go to Father's Day, the challenge on the Polkadoodles blog this week is

Something for Dad or Male Related

Although my card is a birthday card it could easily be adapted to a fathers day card just by changing the wording, the photo could be of the child or children the card is from. I have used the helicopter template from Paper Boutique Vol. III, but turned it into a rocker card. I cut the windows out and replaced them with acetate, adding the photo behind one of them, a bit of stickles to the lights and glitter to the wording finished it off.

If you follow my blog regularly then you will know I have a bit of a thing about tent cards, I find that they never stay up but tend to splay so I very rarely make them, if I have no option but to make the card in this style then I always add a gusset (a little W shaped piece of card) to the inside, so that it can only open so far, and add the message panel to the back.

You can just about see the gusset here

Message panel on back.

Head on over to the Polkadoodles challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from my teamies. and don't forget to enter the challenge, we love visiting your blogs and seeing your creations.

Just Floatin' by to say Hi!

Helloooooo, still on my holidays, so this is a scheduled post, welcome to another Teddy Bo Tuesday and I hope it finds you all well
.
You still have until Sunday 12th June to enter our Shaped Cards challenge and DT call, so if you haven't done it yet you need to get a wriggle on.

For this week's card I have used a Sepia version of Bo, happily floating along tied to a balloon. I lightly coloured him using Photoshop, and used Nitwit papers from the Bundle of Joy kit to make up the easel card. I made the cloud shape in Photoshop and filled it with one of the papers, then added some shading to give it a bit of a fluffy look. Bo's balloon is attached to the card with an Action Wobble (a kind of springy thing) which makes him wobble about each time he is knocked or you move the card, it looks fab in real life, unfortunately you just can't see it in a photo. Ribbon from MeiFlower and buttons from stash.

There are lots of gorgeous new images in store including Ballerina Bea, she's soooo cute, so make sure you go over there and check them all out, and head over to the challenge blog to see some fabulous inspiration from my teamies.

A Little Bird Told Me!

Hopefully while you are reading this post I am enjoying the beautiful Shropshire sunshine (fingers crossed) from my terrace overlooking the lake, and depending upon the time of day, possibly enjoying a glass or two of wine!
Stacy, Kate her cousin and some friends are off to the Take That concert today, and after getting an absolute soaking at Old Trafford last year I hope the weather stays fine for them this time.

Today I have a card using The Clipart Fairy's A Little Bird Told Me kit. I love the cute little girls in this kit and the great co-ordinating papers, the word art is also included.

Now in my head this card started off life as a rocker card, then I decided to go with the Octagon shape but still in the rocker style, once I had it all printed, cut and laid out in front of me (but not yet folded) I decided that I actually really liked the full octagon, so instead of folding it down the centre as originally planned, off I went to the printer, printed a back for it, and used a scrap piece of card to hinge the two together, I have ended up with quite a large (8 inch) card.
Ribbon, lace and flowers are from stash, and the little birthday tag was cut using a sizzix die.
I printed inserts to match and used them to cover the "hinge".

The Clipart Fairy has loads of fab new kits, digi-stamps and graphics, head over to her store to check them all out, also there is a great Freebie shaper kit on her blog here.

Polkadoodles Stashbox Stamp challenge

Good morning to you all, today finds me up the wall, trying to get all my packing done. Tomorrow, Eric, Meg and I are going away for a week.
It isn't always easy taking Meg away on holiday as we need accommodation that is wheelchair accessible, has a hoist, a walk in shower and wheeled shower chair. There are lots of places that advertise as disabled friendly, which in most cases means there is level access and downstairs bedrooms, but some disabled people need more than this and for them we have found there is not quite as much choice.
There is a little place in Scotland (near Stranraer) that we go to every other year, it's a little complex of bungalows, with everything catered for as far as disabled equipment goes, but this year is the in-between year, and I have managed to find a log cabin in Shropshire, the owners have a disabled son, so they have adapted the chalet to suit him. It is on a site that is built around a lake, which all the cabins overlook. Amazingly they have kept the price quite reasonable too, as adapted properties, tend to be quite expensive, they also get snapped up quite quickly, so you have to book as soon you find one with a vacancy. Although it won't be a relaxing holiday as such, as we still have Meg's care to see to, which includes getting up a couple of times a night for toileting and turning, it is just nice to be able to take a break as a family.

Anyway on to this weeks card for the Polkadoodles challenge which is

Stashbox Stamp plus a secret

this time we would like to see your cards or projects that contain a secret.

 For my card with a secret I used papers from Paper Boutique Vol III, and a Penny Black stamp, coloured with Promarkers. I used a nestie to cut the frame that my stamped image is attached to, and added flowers, gems and ribbon from stash to finish it off. Inside the card is a little pocket, with a tag with some instructions for the recipient to follow to get their birthday message. The tag and inspiration for the card came from here

The secret is how you get the message from the card.

Head over to the Polkadoodles challenge blog and check out my teamies secrets!!! and don't forget you have until Sunday noon (GMT) 12th June to get your secret entries into our challenge.

***We have decided to extend the blog hop for a further week due to the difficulties people are having leaving comments due to a problem with Internet Explorer(I have heard that if you un-tick the keep me signed in box it will work ) and with posting due to problems with Blogger***

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Shelly's Images  - Seeing spots

Stamp Insanity  - Anything goes.

Fab 'n' Funky - #75 Whateva' plus DT call

A Spoonful Of Sugar - #154 Flower Power

ABC Challenge - V is for Variety - three types of embellishments (ribbon, flowers, gems)