Birthday card with Anya

I saw this card on Create and Craft TV, and love the folds. This one was for a friend on the Cricut MB who had a birthday this week. I also made the same card in lilac for another friend.

Tri Shutter Christmas card

This is my first Tri Shutter card and was very easy to create. The swirls are the cuttlebug folder Divine Swirls. I have realised that to take a decent photo when using mirri card you need to go outside. This week's challenge on the UK Crafters thread on the Cricut MB was to use swirls so this fits the bill and maybe I can find another challenge for using a cuttelbug folder.

NOTE:

Okie has a cut file on her blog if you are not sure how to make one http://okieladybugsscrapnmore.blogspot.com/

Bleach technique

I have been trying out some different things this week and thought I would try the bleach technique. First I stamped the rose on pink card and then went over parts of it with a brush. Before I got halfway through the bristles on the brush had dissolved, obviously I was using the wrong type of brush! A cotton bud was the next thing to try and that worked well. The card and the scallopped mat are cuttlebugged with a Fiskars plate. This will be my card front for the September swop on the Cricut MB. AMENDED TO ADD it is better to heat emboss the image to make a ridge to stop the bleach spreading out where you do not want it.

Birthday Card for Rosy

Rosy is 40 today so she deserved a special card. The corset is a cut file for SCAL, it is a bit flimsy to get off the mat but worth the effort. My sister-in-law had recently shortened a prom dress and given me some of the satin that she had cut off so I thought it would be perfect for this dress. The badge is something I designed in Photoshop and it does have a pin on the back so it can be worn. I found a great file to use in photoshop for doing circular text, you just enter your own text and it is all set up for you.

Another Polkadoodle challenge card

I was so pleased that this week's challenge at polkadoodle was to use a flower on a circle card as I love making flowers. This one is made using circles and a bit of folding, I think it is one of the prettiest flowers you can make, the brad in the middle is green with spots although it looks yellow! The butterfly is an MS punch which I stamped and embossed then added tiny beads for the body and stamens for the antennae from my cake decorating stash. The card is from a Cricut cut file designed in Design Studio and the spotted paper is from Polkadoodles.

Anniversary card

I am loving making these aperture cards although this gave me a few problems as the nylon thread would not stick, but I persevered and got there eventually!!! It is for my daughter and son-in-law whose 21st wedding anniversary is this week.

The apertures were cut with nesties, and for the hearts I punched 4 for each, stuck them together sandwiching the thread in between and stickled the edges. For the letters I used George and the Cricut and the tiny weeny bows were made using the 'fork' method.

On the inside of the card the words say 'Love brought you together as husband and wife and gave each of you a best friend for life', 'Happy Anniversary'.

Tortoise Penny Slider Card

The image on the card is by Kate who was kind enough to send me a copy, thanks Kate, check out her blog for her fantastic cards http://www.craftybuggersunite.blogspot.com/
This is the first penny slider card I have made and it was so easy that I will certainly be making more.

This week's Birthday cards

August is a busy time for birthdays! The first two are using the lovely Tara image, free from http://victoriacasestamps.blogspot.com/ , with the second card cut from the Wild Card cartridge. The third card was cut with my paper trimmer and uses the sweet hedgies from Penny Black stamps and papers from Papermania 'The Big One'. These hedgies were very naughty as I left them on my worktop to let the water droplets dry and they jumped down the back! I had to take the worktop off and pull out the drawer units only to find that I could have reached them with my tweezers!!!

Polka Doodle challenge card

This week the http://polkadoodle.blogspot.com/ challenge was to follow the sketch, apart from that we could do what we liked, so to be different I put it on the inside of my card!
The background paper is Polka Doodles dark orange curves, I changed the colour slightly in Photoshop E, and also used it for the butterflies.
The centre scalloped oval and the small scalloped squares were cut with nesties and the MS butterflies are Swiss Dot-ted. What a job it was to get the butterflies to hang the right way round, they kept flitting every which way but I finally got them to behave. I finished with a bit of doodling on the white areas and punch on the top border to finish.

Over the Hill

This is a card for my brother-in-law's 70th. I stretched the tortoise at an angle and cut him and the sign from WIMG. The '70' and the pattern in the shell are stamped with gold ink, there are also some birds in the clouds but they don't show up either! I have an 'Over the Hill' certificate to include in the card too. I feel the card is a bit plain but it is for a man, so!!!

It the men's turn!

Thought I would give the females a rest and work on some masculine cards. Gina aka GRIDDO has a card front swop on the Cricut MB and the theme for September is 'male' so this is my design for it. The background paper was designed by Liz Wagner and the image is from a collection called 'Boys and their toys!!' from http://lily-boosboutique.blogspot.com/ Some of the colouring I did in Photoshop and the trousers are done with a patterened 'brush' from that programme. The remainder was coloured with Copics. A bit of inking around the edges and a sparkly brad for the golf ball to finish.

Sure Cuts A Lot

Wow, I have just bought the update to SCAL and Todd has done it again! Now you can group and ungroup, trace, layer etc., etc., and best of all have more pages. It's so exciting and I can't wait to try it out later today. I think it is well worth the $30 (limited time discounted price), for the upgrade. There are so many wonderful people out there who design and share their SCAL files also so many dingbats and fonts, all for free, that you really should check it out and if you are not sure then download the free trial first - you don't know what you are missing. Here's the link, http://www.craftedge.com/index.html and while you are there check out the forum and all the tutorials and free files you can get from there. Happy Buggin'.

Polkadoodle challenge card

This week's challenge at http://polkadoodle.blogspot.com/ is to use the Tropical Bird download, with the option of using the sketch. I recently bought the striped paper and decided it would make a great fence, the flowers and greenery behind it are from Rubber Stamp Tapestry, these are such useful little peg stamps. The birds on the fence are decoupaged but it does not show on the picture.
Can you spot Lily crawling up one of the posts!
AMENDED - Oh, just watching Nikki again on C&C and realised it Lulu crawling up the post, sorry!!!

Another Girlie card

I am on a 'girlie' trend at the moment! Here is another card using one of the girl images from

http://lily-boosboutique.blogspot.com/ These girls are georgeous and I love using them, can't you tell. The card is for the weekly challenge over on the Cricut MB, in the UKCrafters thread. We had to use plain cardstock and 3 buttons or brads. The stitching round the card is computer generated, I played around with Photoshop and made a brush. The colouring is Copic Caio's and the tiny weeny bow was made using the 'fork' method which is a bit fiddly but you can get such tiny bows.

I am going to be working on some boy/male cards next, for a change,lol, as I have some to make for a swop and Sam at lily-boos has designed just the image I need.

Design Team Call

If you are interested in becoming a member of lily-boo's design team just click on the title above to take you to her blog where you can find all the information. You get to use some fabulous designs and there are a few freebies so what are you waiting for - get on over there and take a look.

Here come the girls!

Here are my latest cards using some of the fabulous designs from Sam at
http://lily-boosboutique.blogspot.com/ I love being on her design team as I get to use all her images. If you would like to get some go to her blog, there are lots of wonderful desings to choose from and they are soooooooo reasonably priced. My girls are all coloured with Copic Caio except the last one, Betty, I had to use pencils for her hair and boots as I did not have any brown Copics. That problem has now been resolved as I just bought a few!

While shopping on the web I found a site that sells the plastic containers for the Copic pens, OK they are not cheap but I needed one. Now I will have to buy more pens as there is room in the new container, any excuse I hear you say and you are right, lol.

More Tildas

I love making Tilda cards and especially using the swing. These are a couple of cards I made on holiday, using some stamped images from my friends on the Cricut MB, UKCrafters thread. The cards have already been bagged by my sister-in-law! I have been practising using my Copics and have found a great lady on YouTube, she is teaching me a lot about shading etc., her name is suzannejdean, and here is a link to her videos. http://www.youtube.com/user/suzannejdean

Also here is link to her blog http://www.scrapbitz.blogspot.com/

More cards to follow using images from Sam at Lily-Boo's Boutique, when I can get the camera to behave!!

72 Lovely Copics Blog Candy

Check out this fantastic blog candy. I love Copics and need more!
Click on the title to go to the blog

3 Flowers Polkadoodles Challenge

Seems I am up for challenges this week! This is my first entry in the Polkadoodles challenges http://polkadoodle.blogspot.com/
I designed the card in DS and cut it with the Cricut E. The flowers were cut from the patterned paper and coloured with Copics. The little birdie on the top scallop is from a lovely freebie, from Polkadoodles, which I printed on to the patterned paper.
Now I just need to practice my camera skills!

Christmas in June for Karel's Chllenge

There is a great challenge over on Karel's blog, the winner of the voting gets a Cricut cartridge. Here is my entry. For this card I used a Dreamweaver stencil and copper embossing paste adding a sprinkle of glitter for snow. The card was designed with DS and cut with the Cricut E. I photographed it open so that the bow would show.

The challenge ends on 30th June so if you want to be in with a chance of winning just click the title to go to Karel's blog. And if not keep a look out for the poll she will be setting up for the voting and if you like mine please vote for me!