It's a Pirate's Life for me!

The theme for the Polkadoodle challenge this week has been set by Tracie and she wants to see

PROJECTS MADE WITH BOOKS IN MIND

Nikky is at the Harrogate show tomorrow and Sunday where she is launching a new range of stamps a CD rom containing loads of papers and lots of new bits and pieces.

If you want a sneak peak at the new stamps head on over to the Polkadoodle blog as a lot of the DT have used them for this weeks challenge.

I went for something a bit different - using an old hard backed book picked up cheaply in a charity shop, I stuck the pages together and cut out the middle to make a box, which I then decorated to look like... a book?!!!!!!

I've used a black and white stampie from the Spring section of the Sundae of Seasons CD rom removed the glasses added an eye patch and coloured it in photoshop, also using red polka dot paper from the same CD to piece together a bandanna. I paper pieced the stripe top, jeans and boots from the Not for Girls CD. The skull and cross bones were taken from  the Candy Doodles CD.

At this point I made the mistake of asking Will my grandson, what he thought of it, as I was really pleased with what I had come up with, but not Will no, "he needs a sword nanny, he can't be a proper pirate without a sword" so I had to rack my brains and ended up using a tree stampie (upside down) and two Christmas baubles from Sundae of Seasons winter section to make the sword, which I then coloured in photoshop, - unfortunately not the right kind of sword - according to Will  it should be a cutlass, but you know what they say... to Err is human, to Arrr is pirate! LOL!.

I covered the book with paper from the Paper Boutique Vol III CD and used a sizzix die from The Craft Bug to cut out the label shape using another paper from PBV-III. I printed a burgundy colour onto some leather finish card to make the spine, corners and fastener and used a piece of jute tape behind the pirate to add a bit of texture. Some magnetic tape holds the box closed.

Will thought it would make a great place for hiding his pirates, so that's exactly what we did. Will wanted some of his pirates guarding his 'treasures' when I took the  photographs, so I took a couple with them for him and then some without for blogging, but preferred the ones with the pirates so here they are.

Hope you have a great weekend, I am off to a Clipart Fairy workshop tomorrow which I am really looking forward to and as Meg is in respite for the week we are decorating her room while she is away including replacing her sink and radiator, so we (Eric) have a busy few days ahead. 

This project is suitable for the following challenges:

Charisma Cardz - Use die cuts

Digi Doodles Shop Best - Anything goes

Shelleys Images Blogspot - Show us what you've got

Paper pretties - Masculine

Scrap creations - anything goes

Incy Wincy Designs - for the Boys

Ooh La La Creations - It's a Man thing

Teddy Bea's been Mugged!!!!!

It's Tuesday again and that means new Teddy Bo and Bea images in store, look out for the pre-coloured images, ideal for making a quick card (or if you are not a colourer in-er LOL!), and beautifully coloured by FairyD, along with a great selection of new digi stamps.

For my mug I have used one of last weeks new Zodiac releases, Teddy Bea Taurus, coloured in photoshop, and a great Letraset product called Safmat.

*Blurb below taken from the Letraset site*

An acid free, self-adhesive, transparent film for use with your desktop printer.

Safmat film is virtually invisible when applied, so only your printed text or image can be seen!

Suitable for Inkjet printers or black and white Laser printers

You print on it just as you would normally, then cut around the image and peel the backing paper away and it sticks to whatever surface you apply it to. It is brilliant for getting images or wording onto items that won't go through you printer, thick card for example, and I am going to give it a go on acetate, as once applied I think you would be able to see the image from both sides.

I have applied Bea to a really cheap white mug, bought at Asda, and added Taurus personality traits to the back of the mug, obviously it can only be used for decoration as the images aren't heat set on the mug or anything, but I love it so much I am thinking of getting it made properly by one of those places that personalise mugs and stuff (Taurus is my star sign).

There is still time to enter the Teddy Bo challenge, you have until Sunday to get your entry in, so snap up one of the fab new images and get creating!

I am going to enter my mug into these challenges.

Craft your days away - Black and White (am hoping it is suitable)

Simply Create - Monochromatic

Paper Sundaes - Keep it Simple

Black, white and one other

Happy Friday! nearly the weekend again woohoo!
This week the Polkadoodles challenge is

Black, White and one other

We want to see cards and projects made using black, white and one other colour of your choice.

This week I decided to make an anniversary card, and use red as my other colour, I just think black,white and red look so classy together. Everything I used came from the Love and Cherish CD, I coloured the couple with promarkers, cut around the frame design, stuck it onto some red card and cut around again and then mounted the whole thing over the couple with foam pads, some polka dot ribbon (which was wrapped around some Primark pyjamas) and rhinestones in the flower centres, (from stash) finished off the card.

 I used papers from the same cd it finish off the inside of the card.

Check out Create and Craft tomorrow at 12pm and 6pm to see Nikky demonstrating some more great Polkadoodle products.

Teddy Bo Tuesday

It's that time again, another Teddy Bo Tuesday and a new Teddy Bo challenge. Congratulations to the top three from last week, your cards are just fabulous ladies, in fact all the entries for our challenges so far have been amazing.
Don't forget to check out the Teddy Bo store for new arrivals, there are some gorgeous new images that you will just have to have!
Now onto the challenge, this week we have a Guest Design Team member Kathy, and she has set the theme for this challenge, Kathy has made a sketch for us to use.

We are being sponsored this week by Crafty Emma's Store and she is offering as the prize the winners choice of 4 x 10m bundles of  Divine Twine. I wish I could enter the challenge myself, what a great prize.

Now I'm not a great lover of sketches, I know some people love them, but I find them a bit constraining, I like to go with the flow when making a card, so I have found this weeks challenge a bit of a struggle and am not really happy with it.

For my card I used the adorable Baby You're a Star image. I coloured Bea in photoshop and paper pieced her clothes with papers from the Sweet Candy paper pack from Clipart fairy, I used papers from the same pack to decorate the card. I used a Marianne creatables die to cut the fancy circle, which is decorated with glamour dust and pearls from stash. The lemon vintage seam binding is from The Ribbon Girl and the ribbon threaded lace is again from stash. The sentiment was made using peelies.

Don't forget to check out the new Teddy Bo and Bea images in the store and we hope you can join us for this week's challenge, it is such a pleasure to visit your blogs and see your beautiful creations.

I am going to enter my card in these challenges

Alphabet challenge Blog - R is for ribbon

KB Cute Monday - use the colour pink

Digis with attitude - anything goes

Paper playtime - anything goes

Wishing you a day that sparkles!

Hello, the sun is shining here and it is, actually, quite a sparkly day, with the light bouncing off the pond and waterfall, (oh, and even more frogspawn - previous post LOL!).
Meg is away in respite this weekend, and much as I love her, it is so lovely to have some free time and a couple of full nights sleep (mainly why she has respite, as she can't turn herself over in bed, so not only up in the night to toilet her but also to turn her whenever she's uncomfortable, the constant disturbed nights catch up with you eventually!). Went out for a meal friday night (local pub) with Eric's sister and her hubby and off out for another meal tonight with my friend and her hubby, making the most of it before Meg comes home tomorrow and I start my diet, yet again! LOL!.

Anyway here is a card I have put together with goodies from the Clipart Fairy, I used the pink stripe alpha from here, (I have layered some of the letters up), the green plaid paper from this set, the pink dotty papers for base and lollipop flowers from this set and the fairy from here. Lots of glamour dust, including some gold, a couple of rhinestones from stash and some card candy used for stoppers, bought at the last Sincerely Yours papercraft show at Leigh.

 Card closed.

Card open, fairy dangling on acetate.

View from side, it's sort of a reversed easel card.

Fairy - all sparkly with glamour dust.

Close up of lollipop flowers

Coincidentally, the Sincerely Yours craft show is once again at Leigh sports village, Lancashire next Sunday 13th March, you may even get to see the Fairy there! If you haven't been to a Sincerely Yours show yet look out for one in your area, I think Norfolk and Edinburgh are coming up in the next couple of weeks, they have a great selection of papercrafting retailers, nothing else, unlike the big national shows that have knitting, sewing, etc., as well!

**Edited to add** there is a fab freebie paper at the Clipart Fairy.

Here are the challenges I will be entering my card into:

Crafty sentiments - Birthday

Desert Island Crafts - 3 choices  -handmade flower, 2 or more patterned papers, birthday theme

Papertake weekly - anything goes

Shelley's Images/TTT challenge - layers

Card Mad fairy's digi days - Glitz and Glamour

Little Claire's designs - Flowers

Crafty Purple frog - Things with wings

Papercrafting Journey - Things with wings.
Stamp something - digi day
Bling it on - Anything goes

Flower Power

It was my turn to set the challenge theme over on the Polkadoodles blog this week, and as I have had lots of frogs fornicating in my pond and filling it up with frogspawn over the last week or so LOL!, I thought that Spring must be on it's way and to me that means flowers, so my theme is Flower Power, I have asked for cards or projects containing at least 3 handmade flowers, this means punched, printed, cut, layered, shaped, anything at all as long as they are not shop bought.

I used the Ditsy Daisy template from the fabulous Paper Boutique Vol III for my card, one thing this template is not short of is flowers, they were all cut and layered onto the card, including the inside, the sentiment is from the same cd and the only other thing I added is a sprinkling of glamour dust.

 Don't forget to head over to the Polkadoodles challenge blog and check out the other DT cards, there are some gorgeous handmade flowers to hopefully inspire you.

I'm going to  enter this card into the Top Tip Tuesday challenge - Favourites- I have used two of my favourite things, digital images (ultimate favourite) and layering, if you check back through my blog you will notice that a lot of my cards contain layers, I just love the dimension it gives.

Dancing in the Rain

Teddy Bo tuesday has come round again, I am amazed at how quickly the weeks are flying by, I feel like I have only just done last weeks post and here I am doing the next. Go check out the fab new images in store, my favourite is the knitted pram, there are more baby images, a cute easter one and a couple of fantastic scenes for building up your picture.
Mad, mad busy here and wasn't sure I would be able to get a card done this week, but managed to throw one together tonight, which is why the photo's are a bit rubbish, they were taken at 11.30pm, so obviously no daylight or natural light.
Anyway here is my offering for this week, because it was a quickie I used the ready coloured Bo and Bea, I added the umbrella from the little extras set, all papers are from the Clipart Fairy, I paper pieced the umbrella with one of the background papers, cut out the frames with my Go Kreate dies, inked around the edges with Tim Holtz distress inks and added some flowers ( the large rose is from Wild Orchid Crafts), a bow, pearls and a beaded spray thingy?! from stash. I made the sentiment in photoshop. Hope you like it!

There are still a few days left to enter this fortnights Duck Egg Blue and Chocolate Teddy Bo Challenge and the prize this week is a fantastic 10 (yes ten) images from the store.

I'm going to enter my card in the following challenges:

Crazy 4 Challenges - Flowers

Lexi's Creations - Flowers

Simply Create - Flowers

Creative Cottage - Fabulous Flowers

Sugar Creek Hollow - Inside Out

Wild Orchid Crafts - Anything Goes