My blog candy arrived!

Woo hoo! My blog candy arrived!

I won this recently on Sarah's blog Card Oasis and have been so excited waiting for it. Look at all those stamps! The papers are stunning, I'll be using those very happily indeed!

Sarah, thank you very much indeed, I feel a very lucky winner!

Cupcake Craft Challenge (28)

I've never done a card challenge before and only ever tried one sketch which as you recall Linda did a few months ago. I don't really understand how sketches work-sometimes people change so much it seems unrecognisable to me, so I have no idea if anything can be changed, if you can add additional elements and so forth!





Nonetheless Jeannette's role as guest designer on Cupcake Craft Challenges has motivated me to try this weeks sketch myself. Last week I did try to do an altered piece but wasn't happy with the finish (to say the least!). This week, I am going to be brave (I think) and send the link off to the challenge blog. Not entirely confident about doing this but it's good to try new things. I just hope I've followed the rules properly and my card doesn't get escorted off the premises! The sketch I need to follow is shown above. The blog states that you can't move the elements around though you can change the size of them. I think I'm pretty accurate regarding the sketch, fear and inexperience means I dare not try and do anything else in case it's not allowed. I like the sketch as it is though and enjoyed doing the angled matting and layering bit as I've never tried that before.

I first saw this Ophelia stamp on another blog a couple of years ago. I adored her at first sight and still do. I searched long and hard for her-there's not many stamps I've seen and wanted more than 'Ophelia'.

As far as I am concerned the stamp does all the talking-there's nothing I can do to make the image any better than it already it and I thought a monochrome card would work really well. I'm quite pleased with the result actually-it's not overly vintage, not overly feminine either, but the striking beauty of Ophelia means that this stamp can be so versatile-I must get her out more instead of being afraid of not doing her justice.

I enjoyed making this card and I'm pleased with the result. I see a great many challenges on various blogs and think I should try and tackle a few more and hopefully gain a bit of confidence along the way.

Ingredients:
Ophelia stamp from Stampsmith
Dream stamp by Anna Griffin
Anna Griffin card
Whisper White card from Stampin Up
Stazon ink
HOTP embellishments
Papermania glitter brads
White textured mulberry paper
Black card
Lace

Cupcakes anyone?

At last I have been able to tick the 'Crazy for Cupcakes' Stampin up set off my list! I have a confession to make-when the catalogue first came out I just didn't' get it'. As usual it's blog and forum hopping and seeing what people with incredible talent can do with this set that brought me back in sync with the rest of humanity and wanting in desperately!

Once I 'got it' I adored this set and I'm beyond happy to have it in my collection. I decided to use the same stamp in two ways in order to show myself how useful this set will be. I have always struggled with birthday cards. For each persons birthday thus far I have done a themed card reflecting their hobbies and interests which is often very hard work, although, it barely needs to be said, is always well worth the effort. However, I longed for something easier and fun, something that shouted out 'birthday'. I did really like the Big Bold Birthday but this set is so pretty and girly and yet can be for boys too-or at least I've attempted to make a card suitable for a boy!



The cards are both A6 size though made by folding an A4 piece of card lengthways and then cutting in half. The fold therefore is at the top and I think it's nice to have a change. I made each card using the same basic recipe and used the Stampin up scalloped punch to create the scallop on the smaller piece of paper (surprisingly enough!). The pink card I used markers to watercolour the cupcake whereas the blue I simply coloured the cupcake in as I wanted a bolder look.

Not too bad for a first attempt although I couldn't get the bows right no matter how hard I tried! I'm really looking forward to lots more playing with this particular set and plan to make a few birthday cards for my card box. I'm hoping that birthdays that are in future 'sprung' upon me, are no longer such a mess of desperate and rushed cardmaking through the night as far too often has been the case previously!

Ingredients:(all items Stampin Up unless stated)

Cardstock in Bashful Blue and Pretty in Pink
Petals & Paisley designer paper
Tea & Crumpets designer paper
Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip & Bashful Blue inkpads
Marker pens
Whisper White card
Very Vanilla card
Pretty in Pink & Bashful Blue taffeta ribbon

Scallop border punch

Oval punch EK Success
Diamond stickles glue

Self adhesive gems unknown make

New Papertrey blog for the UK!!!!

Must tell you the new hot news!
Here in the UK we do find the Atlantic can be a HUGE gap between us and the big craft heaven that is the US. It's great to visit American blogs and forums and believe me I do far, far too much in truth. Having sites that relate to the UK market though are much nicer and more relevent in terms of card sizes and so forth, and with this thought in mind the wonderful Kate and Steph have created a special Papertrey blog especially for us UK and European fans!

They'll be all sorts of things going on including fortnightly challenges and PRIZES! The first post has been..well..posted and I urge you, in fact I must insist that you head over and have a look. Now! No off you go, I've nothing else interesting to say, sorry, but do go and see this new blog as it's gorgeous and the first challenge is awaiting you. Have fun!

Remember how Jeannette as guest designing on the Cupcake Craft Challenges blog? I said I'd take part and I need to get it done by today officially. It's been a disaster. I've really messed it up, it looks awful but hey, I'll show it to you anyway! This is essentially a post about how NOT to cover a box!

I had the best of intentions, cover a post it note or whatever they're called holder, embellish it and then decorate the blanks pieces of paper to co-ordinate with the outside of the box. The original box is as above.

I decided to use the same paper as I used to make the cat card on my post about The Cinnamon Trust. Too late in the day I realise that covering the box would be a bit tricky due to the lid lifting. This means of course that the paper will bunch up a bit and I was worried this may be a problem.

Anyway, I persevered and in hindsight covered the wrong sides in the wrong order. It's ended up being a real mess but I promised I'd get something done for today so I've kept at it (through the tears! sob!) and this is the result. If you think you can see poor edging-yep you can. The lid needed a much thicker bit of paper to stop the underneath showing through and in handling it, I nearly dropped it and any edges that had been vaguely acceptable were scuffed by my fingers although I didn't realise that of course until I had taken the picture in the rapidly fading light! I'm sure you can all point out many other things wrong with it-finding something right is much harder-nigh impossible! Sigh!

Never mind, you can see my master plan at least! It could have been nice, it just isn't. As usual the whole hindsight thing comes into play and I'm sure the next one would be alot better. The thing is I'm never doing this again-it's been horrible! I know when I'm beaten!




Seriously though, it is awful but I realise what went wrong (all of it) but at least I kept going and finished it. It's really hard continuing with something you feel gutted about but I'm glad I did as I can see my idea was OK, just the logistics went a bit awry. Just realised I haven't even taken a photo of the lid on the outside! It's too dark now though perhaps that would work to my benefit and trick you all into thinking it looks amazing, it's just a bit dark when really it looks as awful as the rest of it! Never mind, it didn't work, hey ho, there's always tomorrow's project to try and get better.

Materials used:

Paper will check out

Stampin Up Very Vanilla and Old Olive card

Old Olive ink and grosgrain ribbon

Alphabet stickers unknown

Fish and cat punches

Paw print stamp by Anitas

Cat stamp by Stampcraft
Tom cat stamp unknown as no mark on wood

Another lovely award

Jeannette has kindly given me this award and in doing so brought a tear to my eye. The internet, forums and blogging enable me to 'meet' all sorts of people and every so often I'm lucky enough to 'meet' really special people. Jeannette falls into this category.

This is a beautiful award and I will do my very best to work out how to post it down the right hand side-the blog equivalent of a mantelpiece! Thank you Jeannette. It is much appreciated.

Stampin Up shares

I know I can't afford to buy whole packs of every item in the SU catalogue, and in truth often it would be too much of each thing. I've noticed a couple of shares going on that may be of intereste to people so thought I'd share the details. These won't be every share goin-just the ones I've come across. All are with SU demonstrators so obviously you can buy other stuff too. The details are on each persons blog but essentially the SU demonstrator buys for example a roll of every ribbon in the SU UK catalogue then will split each roll into a certain number of shares. You can have one share of each ribbon-maybe a metre of each, sometimes two, of you could have two or more shares.

I did a ribbon share a while ago and highly recommend it. With this being still Sale-a-bration (until the end of February), many demos are offering the chance to win a sale-a-bration stamp set-Jeannette has an amazing offer on her blog with the taffeta (read must have gorgeousness) and linen thread (fab for buttons) and a sale-a-bration set if I am reading right! I sound slightly uncertain as the deal is so good it's almost too good to be true! All that for £16.50 including P+P!

Jeannette is nothing if not kind and generous though so it's all true-the deal to break all deals!!-go and see! If you're lucky Jeannette may still have a space left on her other ribbon share for the card makers favourite grosgrain-be quick!

I've decided to join in on Joanna's silver hodgepodge share. I like the look of the hodgepodge but at nearly £25, I can't afford the whole box and doubt I'd manage to use it all. Joanne is offering shares of a fifth of a box, just a good amount to get a real feel for the product and at an affordable
£4.65 plus 65p P+P. For the non SU addicts, hodgepodge is the name SU uses for a gorgeous collection of plain brads, frames and the most beautiful patterned silver brads.

There's a few paper shares going on too. The SU designer paper is fab, a good thickness and double sided of course. To get a pack of each would cost a fortune Julie is offering the opportunity to get a 6"x6" piece of EVERY design-that's 84 6"x6" sheets, which should keep you going for a while!!!

I'll let you know if I come across any other shares like this. I know I find them invaluable. Now I'm off to plan what cards I'll make once I've got my eager hands on some silver hodgepodge. With Mothers Day not far off I'd say taffeta ribbon and silver hodgepodge are a must providing the final little details that make a gorgeous card an extra very special gorgeous card!