Gabby's Marvellous Adventure

Today I have an easel card to show you, which I have made a bit differently than usual. There are three sections, the middle one is in the style of a normal easel and the side ones are twisted easels, and they are different because none of the easels folds from the back of the card, which is my usual way of doing it, but are added to the card individually, so that I can place them wherever I want. It still folds in the normal way and fits into an envelope.

I have used one of the new Sassy Cheryl images from Paper Creator called Gabby's Marvellous adventure, printing it three times then cutting and layering the whole image over the large topper with foam pads for dimension andcutting a couple of the books from the third copy and adding them to the smaller toppers, again with foam pads.

Image - Gabby's marvellous adventure illustration- Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Papers - Masked Marvels - Julie Billingsley at Sweet Shoppe Designs

Tonic layering circles and scalloped circles

Sentiment - computer generated

Ribbon - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Rectangles, Squares and Circles!

That's the theme of the new challenge over at Paper Creator today, you must use at least one of each shape on your creation and the card shape itself can be counted, pretty easy, so why not play along for a chance to win a £10 voucher to spend in store - you don't even have to use any Paper Creator products, but if you do you get a second entry into the draw.

Rectangles, Squares and Circles

My card is rectangular in shape, has two square image panels and a circular one, so got all the bases covered there, it also contains buttons (circles) and alphabet stickers (rectangular) and the paper is an Argyle design (squares turned 90 degrees!) even the gingham ribbon is made up of squares - so do I get extra brownie points LOL!

Grip it and rip it Max - Swing me a Story Max and Catch of the day Max - all Sassy Cheryl illustrations at Paper Creator

Papers - Ticket to Ride - Crazy 4 Monograms

 Papermania Madame Payraud Alphabet stickers

Ribbon and buttons - Meiflower

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

Thanks for dropping in,

enjoy your weekend,

hugs,

Colette xx

I Kinda "Dig" you!

I mentioned in yesterdays post that I was going to the theatre to see Ghost in the evening, well after a bit of a hair raising journey to get to the theatre - gale force winds making it quite scary - we arrived about 15 minutes before the start of the show, about two minutes after taking our seats all the lights in the theatre went out plunging us into total darkness, they came on about five minutes later and then continued flickering on and off, - about ten minutes after the show should have started an announcement was made saying that due to unstable electricity supply problems the show was being cancelled, so I never got to see it after all.
The show still has another week to run and it seems it's not too busy the second week, the theatre are confident that they should be able to accomodate people, so hopefully I will get to see it sometime next week instead.

Now what do sand and a bucket and spade have to do with Valentines day?

- well the answer is the quirky Drawn with Character digi image I've used on today's card and the cute sentiment that comes with it.

Digital stamp - Bucket n pail - Drawn with Character - Etsy

Digital papers and date circle- Love you - Just so Scrappy (no longer available)

Die-namics Double scallop border

X-cut palm punch - large heart

Organza ribbon, stick on gems and heart charm - Meiflower

I am entering this card into the following challenges

Creative Moments - #35 Anything goes/Love
Divas by Design  - Love

Fab 'n' Funky - #203 Valentine/Love

Through The Craft Room Door  - Always Anything Goes

Stamp n Doodle  - Valentine/Love

Thanks for dropping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

I Got Ya!

I think I am just about valentined?!!! out - I spent most of yesterday making my last few valentine's cards using some fab images from Drawn with Character, I will be posting one each day through to Valentine's day on Friday.

I love the face on this cupid, (I have another version too, which will feature on Fridays card), he is obviously very pleased with himself after managing to shoot his arrow through the heart LOL!

Digital Stamp - Cupid with Heart - Drawn with Character - Etsy

Digital Papers - Sealed with a Kiss - Crazy 4 Monograms

Marianne Craftables - CR1225 Hearts

X cut border punch - scallops

X cut palm punch heart - Large

Die-versions Alphabet - Little Lizzie font

Lace - Local Hobbycraft store

Pearlescent string - Meiflower

Beads - Stash

Paper Crimper

I am entering this card into the following challenges

City Crafter Challenge -  #198 Love Bug - Make a project including the word love

Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT Challenge  -For The One I Love 

Artistic Inspirations  - Anything Goes / Valentine's Day

Cutie Pie Challenge -  Cute Valentine

Kaboodle Doodles  - To My Sweetheart

I'm off to the theatre tonight to see Ghost, with my daughter, my friend and her daughter, I shall pack the tissues just in case LOL!

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Birthday Candle bird brain

In my last post I mentioned that before I decided to enter their sketch challengeI had made a card for the February Digital Stamp of the month challenge over on the From the Heart stamps blog, you have to use their Stamp of the Month for the challenge, but if you enter you automatically get the next months stamp for free. 

Here's the card I made for the challenge.

Digital Stamp - Birthday Candle Bird Brain - From the Heart Stamps

Digital papers - Heartstrings - Crazy 4 Monograms

Tonic layering dies - Circle

CREAlies CLCS11 - Leaves

X-cut palm punches - Flower, large and medium

Brown pearls - Meiflower

The set comes with a choice of sentiments, here's the inside of my card showing you the one I used.

I am entering this card into the following challenges

From the Heart Stamps - February Monthly stamp challenge

Robyn`s Fetish - # 198- Animals or Birds

Make it Monday  - Always Anything Goes
Through the Purple Haze  - Anything Goes

My Craft Creations - Always Anything Goes

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Birdbrain friends!

I was at the Craft show at Event City Manchester yesterday and you'll never guess what I bought? (If you're a regular visitor then you probably will LOL!)  Yes, I bought more dies hehe! After watching a couple of demo's I 'really needed' them, so look out for roses and fuchsia's on upcoming cards - providing I can remember how to make them LOL!

I've got a card to show you today using the I {heart} card sketches sketch no.52.

 I had bought some digi stamps from {From the heart stamps} earlier in the week and because I spent over $10 and entered the code from the blog I got the Stamp of the Month set for free. They have a monthly challenge where you have to use the stamp of the month , but if you enter, you get the following month's stamp of the month for free - just for playing along - so I thought I would give it a go. My card is made and ready to post, but before I had chance to blog it I noticed the sketch challenge, which only runs for a week, and decided to play along with that too, mainly because the circles in the centre of the grey panel, which I don't think are there other than for decoration, caught my imagination and an idea popped into my head straight away, once again using the Stamp of the Month set, so I made up the card and here it is!

Digital Stamp (inc sentiment) - From the Heart Stamps - Birthday Candle Birdbrain

Papers - Tweet Tweet - Just So Scrappy (only $0.75 in outlet store and contains 42 papers!)

Tonic Circle layering dies

Die-namics Photo corners dies

Stick on Gems - Meiflower

The stamp of the month challenge card will be following in a few days.

I am entering the following challenges

I {heart} Sketches Challenges - Sketch

Love to Create - Birthday / Anniversary

Delightful Challenges - Anything Goes

Crafty Creations -  for the birds

Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge - #15 Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look, 

Have a lovely Sunday,

hugs,

Colette xx

Happy I do day!

Hi there!

Today I wanted to share a wedding card I've just finished - I may have mentioned once or twice (hehe!) that I am a die-aholic and have set myself the challenge of trying to use as many of my dies as possible this year, but that doesn't mean that I'm not buying any new ones, after all I have to keep feeding my addiction LOL! I bought some new Tonic and Joanna Sheen signature dies with my Christmas money and have used a couple of them on this card.

The wedding couple is a digital stamp from Time for tea which I have coloured in Photoshop and the happy I do day sentiment is a digi from Tiffany doodles, I glittered over the O and added a gem to make it look like a diamond ring.

Digital stamp - Wedding couple - Time for Tea - Etsy

Digital Sentiment - Tiffany doodles

Digital Papers - Forever and Always digital scrap kit - Just So Scrappy

Wedding Horseshoe Signature die - Joanna Sheen

Layering scalloped circle and circle dies - Tonic

Triple leaf set - Elizabeth design crafts

Mini hybrid heirloom rose (centre section only) - Die-namics

Metallic edged ribbon and stick on gems - Meiflower

I am entering my card into these challenges

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday  - #257 Red & Love

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes / Use Red

Craft Your Passion  - Love

Digi Makeover Challenge -  must use digi - Anything Goes

Lexi's Creations - Valentine's Day / Love

Make it Monday - Always Anything Goes

Through the Purple Haze  - Love is in the Air

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look,

hugs,

Colette xx

Bee Mine!

Carrying on with the love theme, today I have a card to show you using another image from Drawn With Character which is called Bee Mine.

I decided that as the image was of bees I would use my Spellbinders nesting Hexagon dies to make a honeycomb effect with patterned papers on a honeycomb shaped card base. I went into my craft room to look for the dies, brought them downstairs so that I could scan them into Photoshop (I like to lay my card out in Photoshop and re-size papers etc., so that the patterns aren't too big for the shapes), I opened the packet grabbed the first die and then realised that I was a total idiot! they weren't hexagons at all, they were octagons LOL! and totally unsuitable for a honeycomb.

I still wanted to use the honeycomb layout so ended up cutting the shapes out by hand.

I also liked the idea of adding a love themed charm to the card but somehow or other ended up with 5 of them, dangling across the card like bunting, (I couldn't decide which one looked best, so decided to use them all, well you know what they say - less is more, but even more is even better hehe!). I also added a small piece of feather to the end of the arrow that is piercing the heart.

Digital Stamp - Bee Mine - Drawn with Character - Etsy (coloured in Photoshop)

Digital Papers and heart with arrow - Hearts Desire kit -Crazy 4 Monograms

Charms and black metallic cord - Meiflower

Thanks for visiting,

hugs,

Colette xx

I love you this much!

It's time to begin the challenges again at Paper Creator after the Christmas break, and for the first one of the year we are going to start off nice and easy with...

Anything Goes

We don't have much in the way of rules, just no back linking, a maximum of 3 entries per challenge and most importantly follow the theme, you don't even have to use Paper Creator products, but if you do, you get a second entry into the random draw to win £10 to spend in store.

Here's my card for the anything goes theme, using a gorgeous new Sassy Cheryl illustration called Come On Get Happy.

Digital illustration - Come on get Happy - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator
Digital Papers - Owl always love you digital scrap kit - Just So Scrappy
Go Kreate Large Frame Scallops
Lifestyle nesting circles dies
Die-namics die - Rustic Hearts
X-cut heart punch
Ribbon and charms - Meiflower I used split rings to dangle the heart charm from the O of the love charm

Don't forget to pop over to the Paper Creator challenge blog, check out the inspiration from the rest of my teamies and enter our anything goes challenge.

Thanks for stopping by,
Have a lovely weekend,
hugs,
Colette xx

Oh Baby!

Just a quick post today to show you a baby card I made using the fab Digi Darla image Blessings of Heaven 5. When I made this card HERE I printed the image out in two different sizes and used the larger image on the other card, so I put this card together with the smaller image and the left over papers, usisng the same layout but decorating it differently.

Digital Stamp - Blessings of Heaven 5 - Digi Darla (coloured in Photoshop)

Digital Papers - Bedtime Stories Girl - Crazy 4 Monograms

Lifestyle Alphabet Die - Lemon Drop - Maddy Lisa Crafts

X-cut heart punches large and small

Gingham ribbon, satin rosebud trio, polka dot buttons and heart dazzlers - Meiflower

I am entering the following challenges with this card -

Digi Darla- ABC challenge - (B is for Baby)

Fan-Tastic Tuesday - Must Be Square #19 Make It Feminine - It's got a baby girl, there's pink on it, a bow, flowers and bling so hopefully it counts as feminine?

Papertake Weekly W- Add A Bow & Use A Die

Party Time Tuesdays - #156 Use Ribbon

Through The Craft Room Door - Always Anything Goes

Thanks for dropping in and taking a look

hugs,

Colette xx

You go together like.....

...Cheese and wine, bacon and egg, salt and pepper or milk and cookies!

Here's a card made with one of the other digital stamps I purchased from Drawn with Character, I love the quirky humour of this one, and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to have it. I made it up into an anniversary card for my friend.

Digital stamp - We go together 1- Drawn with Character- Etsy (coloured in Photoshop)

Digital papers - Candy Kisses digital scrap kit - Crazy 4 monograms

Sizzix nesting hearts die

X-cut nesting postage stamp die

Sentiment - computer generated

Ribbon and buttons - Meiflower

I am entering my card into the following challenges

Artistic Inspirations  - Anything Goes / Ribbon

Card Mania -  Anything Goes

Love to Create  - Buttons

Make it Monday  - Always Anything Goes

My Time to Craft – All about Love

My Sheri Crafts -  Use a Digi

Digitally Sweet - Digital images/projects- No. 71 - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

You're Tweet!

I recently came across a store selling digital stamps on Etsy called Drawn with Character, and as usually happens with me, found that three of the images just jumped into my basket LOL!

I managed to get them coloured up last week whilst looking after my grandson, (I do so love that couple of hours when he is asleep hehe!) and two of them made into cards, so today I thought I would share one of them with you.

I coloured the image in Photoshop as usual and then printed straight onto Kraft card, printing the image out twice, each time on a different setting, to see which turned out best, as it happened there wasn't much difference between them.

As I had printed two images I decided to make two cards using the same layout for both, but making one with scalloped borders and the other with ribbons (this will be a sample for Meiflower). 

Here are my cards

Digital Image - You're Tweet - Drawn with Character - Etsy

Woodware long reach ribbon slot punch

Grosgrain ribbons and stick on gems - Meiflower

Digital image - as Above

I rubbed a white ink pad around the edges of the Kraft card

Digital Papers - Love You digital scrap kit - Just So Scrappy (can't find it on site to link)

Die-namics Simply Scallops Medium

Ribbon, charm, pearl hearts - Meiflower

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Welcome Baby

I seem to be going through a phase of using Kraft card for my card bases at the moment, I hadn't even realised I was doing it until my daughter was looking at today's card and said to me - you seem very fond of that brown stuff (non-crafter LOL!), you're using it a lot lately.

So here's the card she was looking at, it's a baby boy card using Jolly the Jiraffe from Teddy Bo and some of that brown stuff hehe!

Image - JOLLY_001 - Coloured in Photoshop

Papers - Baby Mine Boy digital scrap kit - Just so Scrappy outlet store

X-cut Scalloped Rectangle die

X-cut Border Punch - Scallops

X-cut palm punch - circle large

Ribbon, dummy, polka dot buttons and pearls - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Love is in the air!

This post should have been done on Saturday but for the last couple of days I have had the stinking cold that is going around at the moment, today is the first day that I haven't been aching all over, it's also the first day that I have lost my voice too - made Eric's day LOL! Both Eric and Meg had it first, and then, as usual, once I've looked after them and got them better I come down with it -Eric is back in work, Meg still needs looking after and I've got my youngest grandson Charlie nearly every day this week, so no rest for me.

I have to admit that I've also been distracted by the darts on the telly - the first couple of weeks of the year when the BDO World Darts Championship is shown from the Lakeside Country Club is one of the things I most look forward to after the Christmas break, and have really enjoyed it once again this year.

Anyway back to the cards and with Christmas out of the way, the next big occasion, for us card makers is Valentine's day, and with that in mind I'm giving you a sneak peek at two of  the new Sassy Cheryl illustrations - First love and Smitten - which will be available shortly at Paper Creator.

Sassy Cheryl illustrations First Love and Smitten - Paper Creator

Papers - Lovebirds digital scrapbook kit - Just so Scrappy

Sizzix Hearts dies

X cut heart punch

Sentiment - Computer Generated

Ribbons and gems - Meiflower

If you like to match your papers to the colours in your image, you should check out the First Love ultimate kit from Paper Creator when it becomes available, as well as the image it  also contains papers, a build a topper set, a ready to print card, sentiments and decoupage.

For this card I used the image and a couple of the papers. The card base was made by printing both sides of  A4 Linen card from Papermill Direct with one of the plain papers from the kit, before cutting to size and folding to make a square card.

The card is a sample for Meiflower which is why it is bedecked in pearls and gems, plus I love a bit of bling on a card and couldn't resist encrusting the die cut heart frame with all things sparkly!

Image and Papers - First Love Ultimate kit - Paper Creator

Sizzix Heart dies

X-cut heart punch

Sentiment - Computer Generated

Stick on gems and pearls in various sizes and colours - Meiflower

Thanks for stopping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Sunglasses Alert!

If you are a regular visitor to my blog you will know that I don't really do soft muted colours, I would love to, I always think they look so classy whenever I see them used by other people, but my brain just doesn't seem to work like that and no matter how hard I try I always seem to end up with bright colourful cards.

Today my colours are so vivid, you may need to pop on a pair of sunglasses before viewing,

(I will not be held responsible for any damage to your peepers from viewing my card without taking the proper precautions LOL! You have been warned!) 

I had some really bright neon coloured ribbons and wanted to match the papers and my colouring to them, then I matted everything onto black card which really made the colours pop.

Digital stamp - Deidre Mosher at Etsy - Coloured in Photoshop

Digital Papers - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun digital scrap kit - Crazy 4 Monograms

Senitment - Computer Generated

X-cut border punch - Scallops

Lin and Lene  Designs corner die - 1201/0012 (cut down)

Neon coloured satin ribbons and stick on gems - Meiflower 

I printed the image twice, cut the cake from the second print and layered it onto the first with foam pads. The corner die was a lot larger, but I trimmed away the parts I didn't want to make it the right size for my project.

I love that image, they look like they really can't wait to get stuck into that cake.

Thanks for popping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Happy New Year!

The days nearly over, but managed to just slip in LOL!, hope you had a good one, and 2014 brings you, health, wealth and happiness along with all the things you wished for.

Unfortunately Christmas and New Year haven't been too happy for us this time around - my Father-in-law passed away on the 22nd December, and because of the Christmas holidays, his funeral won't take place until the 6th January (the family were offered the 5th January at first, but that's his birthday and nobody wanted that), so the 6th it is. Hopefully once the funeral is over we can start to move on and work towards getting things back to normal.

I had my daughter and grandchildren around for dinner on Christmas Day and we were determined to make it a happy day for the younger family members, which hopefully we managed to do, especially as the jokes in the crackers were pretty good this year LOL!
As well as the sadness of  my father-in-laws passing we had the joy of a new baby, as my friend Donna's third grandchild, (but first granddaughter) Lucia Rose, was born just before 1am on Christmas Day. She kept us all on tenterhooks as her mum was in slow labour for a couple of days - thanks to text messaging I was getting regular updates of how the labour was going (almost felt like I was there LOL!) all day on Christmas Eve and as midnight approached we waited with bated breath, would she be a Christmas eve or Christmas day baby? but she managed to hang in there for a bit longer and Christmas day it was! What a fabulous present for Donna and her family.

and here she is

Lucia Rose with her auntie Chloe.

I made this card for the proud Grandparents.

Digital Stamp - Blessings of Heaven 5 (coloured in Photoshop) - Digi Darla

Digital papers - Bedtime Girl - Crazy 4 Monograms

Sizzix Framelits - Hearts

Spellbinders Mirror die

Gingham Ribbon, satin rosebud trio, waxed cord and pink gems - Meiflower

I scanned the dies into Photoshop and then used them as a guide for the size of the writing. After printing it was just a case of positioning the die correctly over the wording before running through the machine.

I'm hoping to drop the card off at the weekend, but I'm sure Donna will probably see it on here before I get it to her, hope she likes it!

Posting will probably be a bit hit and miss for the next couple of weeks, but hopefully normal service will resume shortly!

Thanks for dropping by,

hugs,

Colette xx

Boy with Gifts

This will be my last "proper" post before Christmas, although I have added a few scheduled posts as I have so many Christmas cards made that I haven't yet blogged, and I wanted to showcase at least a few of them.

There is a lot going on here at the moment, my Father in law is very ill now, and the Macmillan nurses who are looking after him have told us they think that he has at most a couple of weeks left, but more probably only a couple of days, so you can imagine how awful each and every day is for the family.

They are all spending as much time as possible with their dad, my hubby is at work during the day (luckily he works only 10 minutes away from home so can get to his dad's quickly if needed) so is going around each evening and his two sisters are there for most of the day.

My daughter Meg, who idolises her grandad, is heartbroken that she can't visit him to say goodbye, but with George being upstairs in bed and Meg being totally reliant on a wheelchair and because of her condition not even able to be carried up the stairs, it's not an option. She can't even speak to him on the telephone as he can barely talk and doesn't know who you are even when he does.

It's probably very selfish of me, but I am glad that she can't see him this way as I don't want her last memories of her grandad to be of the way he is now, - it was only a couple of weeks ago that she was at their house having her Sunday dinner with Grandma and Grandad (she normally goes every other Sunday), Grandad was up sitting in his chair and still quite well at this point and I would prefer her to remember him like that.

OK enough of the doom and gloom, that's not what you came here for, today I have a couple of cards to show you made with exactly the same image, papers and embellishments, but just laid out differently.

I design my cards in Photoshop, bringing in the papers, cropping them to size and then laying them out exactly as I want them to be on the finished card, once happy with the design I arrange the papers and image on an A4 sheet of paper (depending on the design sometimes I need a couple of sheets), print, cut and put together, adding any embellishments as I go along.

For this particular card everything fitted on one A4 sheet, but when I was printing out the design there was a problem with the printer and I ended up with a smudge of ink where there shouldn't have been any, so I re-printed the sheet, which came out perfectly the second time.

It seemed a shame to waste a sheet of printing so I decided I would find a way of getting around the smudge and make two cards.

The first version of the card is made from the perfect print, and is laid out exactly as originally planned.

Image - Boy with presents digi - Lee Holland Etsy Store - Coloured in Photoshop

Papers - Jolly Days Digital Scrap kit - Just So Scrappy

Circle Sentiment - made by me

Lifestyle nesting circles die

Marianne Craftables die - CR1212 Ticket and Tags

Tonic geared punch - Diamond Scalloped border

Ribbon, metallic cord, stick on pearls and green jingle bells - Meiflower

This second card was made with the reject print - the ink smudge was close to the image so I decided to cut around the image leaving a narrow border - that way I could still use the image but get rid of the smudge. I cut out the papers and played around with them until I was happy with the layout and then made up the card, substituting Kraft card for the red I'd used previously.

All details same as above.

There will be a few more scheduled posts up until Christmas, but depending on how things go I am not sure when I will be back after that, so I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

and to anyone out there who is going through the same sort of thing as we are here, I would like to leave you with these words from one of my all time favourite Eagle's songs.

I wish you peace when the cold winds blow 

Warmed by the fire's glow 

I wish you comfort in the lonely time 

And arms to hold you when you ache inside 

I wish you hope when things are bad 

Kind words when times are sad 

I wish you shelter from the raging wind 

Cooling waters at the fever's end 

I wish you peace when times are hard 

The light to guide you through the dark 

And when storms are high and your dreams are low 

I wish you the strength to let love grow, 

I wish you the strength to let love flow, 

I wish you peace when times are hard 

A light to guide you through the dark 

And when storms are high and your dreams are low 

I wish you the strength to let love grow.

Hugs,

Colette xx

Bauble card with template

Phew! what a busy week it's been and now a busy weekend too. Our car was returned to us Thursday afternoon all fixed and ready to go, which has put a smile back on Meg's face because we can get her out and about again now.

We are off to see Boyzone on Sunday evening so it's a relief to have the car back and know we don't have to mess around with taxi's (which Meg isn't too keen on)

Today is the start of our last Paper Creator challenge of the year and this time around the theme is

Shaped Cards

Just pop over to the challenge blog and link up your shaped cards to be in with the chance of winning a £10 voucher to spend in store - you don't need to use Paper Creator products but if you do you get two entries into the draw.

I decided to make a bauble shaped card using one of the new Sassy Cheryl illustrations, Snowmen in Love, from Paper Creator. For my shaped card I made myself a template in Photoshop which you can snag from further down the page if you want it.

Image - Snowmen in Love - Sassy Cheryl at Paper Creator

Background paper - Winter Whimsy - Just so Scrappy, Crazy 4 Monograms collab

Glitter card - local Range store

Lifestyle nesting circles dies and nesting lace circles die

Joy crafts Winter wishes Ice Crystal dies 1, 2 and 3

X-cut palm punch Snow Crystals punches large and medium

Sentiment - Cuddly Buddly freebie

Ribbons, jingle bells, white metallic cord and stick on gems - Meiflower

I printed the template out onto the reverse of an A4 piece of vintage gold card, given to me by my friend Karen, I was originally going to use Kraft card and when I came across the vintage gold in my stash thought that it was very similar to Kraft in colour, but with a pearly metallic finish.

I cut out the bauble shapes scored along the top of the circle and used double sided tape to stick the top sections together giving me a bauble shaped tent card.

If you trim a small piece from the back of the card it should stand up.

Here's the template, just left click to make larger and then right click and save as

Don't forget to pop over to the Paper Creator Challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from the rest of my teamies.

Thanks for dropping in,

have a lovely weekend,

hugs,

Colette xx

Teddy Bo Tuesday

Last week I took the very sad decision to step down from both the My Besties and Teddy Bo design teams, with all that I have going on here at the moment, I felt I couldn't give them both the commitment needed. Anyway, the Teddy Bo team have refused to let me go, and I am now lurking in the background and just doing what I can when I can, which I was soooo happy to do as I have been on the team from the very beginning and it was such a hard decision to leave the mad bunch.

I didn't for one minute think I would find the time to do a card this week, but thanks to our car having a major breakdown on Friday evening and my hubby spending most of Saturday sorting things out and getting it transported to the garage, instead of going Christmas shopping  (mmm... I'm wondering if he planned it that way hehe!) I ended up with the day free, so the first thing I did was colour up one of the new Teddy Bo images and make up a card.

Image - Bo Bea Nativity - coloured in Photoshop

Papers, star and word art - The Reason for the Season digital scrap kit - Just So Scrappy

Grosgrain ribbon and brown stick on pearls - Meiflower

The car is at the garage, transported there by the RAC, as the rear suspension has completely gone and they deemed it unsafe to drive. The garage can't look at the car until at least Thursday and then they may have to order parts to repair it, so we have no idea how long it is going to be off the road and as it is a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV) poor Meg is stuck in the house until it's repaired.

Luckily it's leased from Motability, so no repair costs, and they are trying to sort out the loan of a similar vehicle, until it's fixed.

Meg is in a panic as we are off to see Boyzone on Sunday and she is worried that if we don't have a car she won't get there, she is petrified of taxis due to a bad experience with the wheelchair in a taxi when she was younger, so we are keeping everything crossed that either the car will be repaired or we will have the use of another WAV before then.

Thanks for dropping in,

hugs,

Colette xx

Scalloped rocker! and tag cards

A couple of weeks ago we had some devastating news when we found out my 82 year old Father-in-law has cancer, after going backward and forward to doctors and hospitals for weeks because he was in a lot of pain and being told it was just an existing condition (he has polymyalgia) and him insisting it was more than that, they finally did a body scan which showed up shadows on his liver and in his bones. He had a biopsy last week and they are doing a second biopsy this Thursday before they start him on any treatment. Although the cancer is widespread and they have told him they can't cure it, they seem to think it can be managed for now with treatment.

He has just received a rheumatology appointment  through the post for May 2014, which he has taken as a positive sign, laughing that they must think he will still be here by then LOL!

Today I have the last of the cards I made with the Paper Creator Joy Ultimate kit. I made a scalloped rocker, which because of the scallops doesn't actually rock, so I think I need a more suitable name for it LOL! and used the tags in the kit to make a couple of tag shaped cards!

I re-sized the topper base (from the make me a topper set included in the kit) to fit the 8 inch width of an A4 piece of card, then printed it out directly onto Papermill Direct Linen Card, scored through the middle and folded to make a scalloped circle tent card. I re-sized another make me a topper set to fit on to this base and  once again printed it and a couple of paper designs onto more A4 Linen card. I used circle dies to cut out my papers and matted them onto the scallop base, then added the topper and layers with foam pads. The sentiment is also included in the kit. I finished off with lots of glitter, punched snowflakes and ribbon and crystals from Meiflower.

Included in the extras section of the Joy ultimate kit is two tags, one with the snowman and the other with the swirly design across the bottom. I took one of each into my graphics program, rotated one 180 degrees and then lined the two tags up with their tops just touching. I then re-sized the whole thing to fit the long length of an A4 sheet. I copied this to make a second card base as two fitted nicely on one sheet of card. After printing directly onto Papermill Direct linen card, I scored and folded to make two card bases and then printed a sentiment and make me a topper set from the kit and used some off cuts from the previous cards for matting to build up a design on each card front, finishing off once again with punched snowflakes and some ribbons, gems and a couple of jingle bells from Meiflower.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend

see you Tuesday,

hugs,

Colette xx