Just Popping By...

..to say hi!

It's been a busy few days and I've not had much chance to make anything because I wanted to put some cards in for the latest PaperCrafts publication call and the weekend was busy, but I thought I'd pop by and share a little card I made a while back. It was using Amy Butler Lotus papers and die cuts.

Hope you like.  I have some news to share with you soon that I'm very excited about :o)

Ciao for now!

Three Cards, three challenges

Hi everyone

I hope you've all had a good week, and that you're looking forward to the weekend, I know I am :o)  It seems like ages since Christmas, I do miss it, but it's also nice to start to get back into a routine again.

Today I have a few cards to share with you. The first is for two challenges, Unscripted Sketches, to use any sketch, and The Sweetest Thing's sketch #98. Here is my card..

and here are the two sketches that I used..

 I dug out my Cosmo Cricket Togetherness 6 x 6 pad for the papers, and used my Papertrey Ink 'Baby Button Bits' which is quite an old set, but new to me :o)  I also used the new Victorian border die and Labels 16 Nesties.  The longest part of the job was tying on the little bows, they were quite fiddly, plus those tiny little buttons.

My next two cards are for Lucy Abram's sketch challenges.  Her sketches are fab, I really do hope she carries on doing them.  The first card is for her Day One Challenge, both cards are very quick and easy.  I had a few minutes to play with my Lawn Fawn, 'My Silly Valentine' so decided to make a couple of very quick cards..

I'm not sure if you can really see but the little apple was cut out using Basic Grey Origins green grid paper, and then covered with glossy accents, and the little leaf was coloured in using some green Stickles.  I really LoVe that little apple, it's adorable!

The next card is for Lucy's Day 4 sketch challenge...

This is a 3 x 3 mini card, again using Cosmo Cricket papers.  Don't those little pears look so cute all dotty?!   The sentiment reads, 'we make a perfect pear', not 'we make perfect pear' as it looks!!  Every time I took the picture the ribbon would move!

So, I will be back tomorrow with a card for Etsy Inspiration Challenge, so don't forget to pop by!  I always love your visits, just remember to say hi so that I know you've popped in!

PDCC 63

Hi there everybody

I have a quick card to share with you for today's Play Date Cafe Challenge. It is another CAS card, it must be my week for that style lol

The colours this week are green, silver and gold.  Well I have been thinking about this for the past few days and for some reason, I don't know about you, but I find silver with gold quite a challenge.  I knew I needed to make a male birthday card, so thought the colours would be great for it.   As it turned out I never had much time to play so I ended up with this.  Now where is the silver and gold you may be asking, well the silver has been used on the wing mirrors on the car, and the star is gold, so technically all the colours are there.  You just have to look very hard for them!!! ;o)

This is the inspiration pic from our lovely Sarah..

As you can see it's very quick to make;

1. Cut strip of stripey paper, attach to centre of card
2. Stamp car, once in main solid image, and then mask off to do tyres in brown
3. Stamp on reverse of silver card and cut out wing mirrors
4. Attach finished car with pop dots, attach to card
5. Stamp sentiment, and add a star to finish
6. Breathe a sigh of relief that while it may not be your best piece of work, at least you met the deadline!!  Sometimes life just gets like that, doesn't it?!  I'm hoping to get to play over the next few days so should have a few more cards to share with you

In the meantime, why don't you pop over the other girls' blogs and check out the loveliness!  Here are the links for you.  Don't forget our new DT girls will also be joining us as players so you could get a sneaky peek of what fab work is to come from them too!

Julie Ranae (Senior DT)

Sarah Anderson (Senior DT)

Savannah O'Gwynn (Senior DT)

Andrea Ewen (Private Blend Designer)

plus our new girls ...

Jaclyn Miller

Michele Gross
Tracey Kuzniak
Jinny Newlin
Libby Hickson
Fiona Shultz
Colleen Dietrich {New Private Blend Designer}

Pop on over to the Cafe and link your post. If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC63, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win!

I can't wait to see what you come up with on the silver and gold idea, I could really do with some ideas on how to use it better in the future!  I'm hoping loads of you will do 'man' cards too, that way I can add to my inspirational folder of cards for male birthdays!

A happy little card!

Hi everyone

Phew, WHAT a week! I am wrecked!

I want to share a little card with you tonight that makes me really happy. You may remember a few weeks back Natasha had to go away on a school trip. We weren't allowed any contact, but could send one card. This is the card that I sent her.  Inside it said 'have a whale of a time'.  I wanted to send her something to make her smile and think of us, but not to make her cry.   This card makes me happy because it's now sitting here at home, along with my little princess that I missed SO very much!

As you can see the card is all crumpled up where she had it in her suitcase!  It was actually uncrumpled when it was sent!

Stamps: Lawn Fawn 'Critters in the Sea'
Papers: Cosmo Cricket 'DeLovely'
Ribbon: local haberdashery

I'll be back tomorrow with a card for PDCC.  Until then have fun!

Cupcake Card

Hi there

I just wanted to share a card with you that I made a while ago. I've had this cutter for so long, but never really known what to do with it. Do you ever buy things and then wonder how to use them?!!

On the subject of cupcakes I linked some very lovely people yesterday for this blog award

and then messed up on my linking so sorry Em for getting it wrong!  Hope I've done it right this time!

Have a great day/evening and come back tomorrow for some Play Date Cafe fun!  It's a really exciting week this week for us so you won't want to miss out on all of the fun!

Happy Flowers!

Hi everyone

I thought I'd share a simple little card with you that I made some time ago. Hope you like it.  I just used DeLovely papers by Cosmo Cricket, some black cardstock, Judy's Blooms & Petite Florals from Lawn Fawn.

I'll be back tomorrow with a card for our latest PDCC challenge.  We don't have a horribilis challenge this week though, hope you're not too disappointed :o)  It was fun seeing what people created with the colours, there were some great entries.

Ciao for now ♥

A quick butterfly card

Hi there everyone!

I hope you had a lovely weekend!  I went to a couple of Copic Workshops run by Stamps and Memories in Kintbury.  There is no point in just being a Copic collector, I think it's high time I learn how to use them properly! The first day was run by Karen, and the second by Karen and Wendy, who is the owner.  They were both perfect hosts, nothing was too much trouble, and we hade a fun time.  There was even chocolate, now what more could you want?!!!

The first day was for beginners to give us the basics of Copics and the second was for the next steps.   I left the workshops feeling much more confident in my ability to play around with colouring with them, and learnt how to do shadows and hair which is always a challenge!  I know I have a way to go, and need to practice, practice, practice, but at least I feel I know where to start now!  I'd looked at lots of tutorials, which are great in themselves, but they just don't quite answer those little burning questions that you have when you're trying it out on your own. 

Today I have a card to share with you that took no time to make at all, thanks to the lovely patterned paper and Martha Stewart punch!   I was itching to add more to it, like a button or some gems, but it actually looked better with the 'less is more' motto!  You can't see here it very clearly but there is a bit of glimmer mist on the butterflies.  I haven't decided what sentiment to put inside the card yet.  I may just leave it blank for now, then it could be used for anything.

I will leave you with the supplies list.  Have a great day, and don't forget to join in the Play Date Cafe and Tiffany Doodles challenges!

Papers: Fancy Pants Design 'Darling'
Accessories: Ranger Tea Dye distress ink, SU! chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Glimmer Mist

Quick Card!

Happy Monday everyone!

Today I have a quick card to share with you that I made a while ago, but never posted it.  As you know male cards are never really my thing, but for some reason my Marmie (Mum) always needs cards for men!  That sounds funny now I've said it out loud, or typed it!  What I mean is she has always been someone that sends cards, to family, friends etc, so always needs a card.  This card needed to be funky and young for a friend of the family, and this is what I came up with.

I just find 'man cards', as they are known in this house, a challenge.  My Marmie asks for a card and I go into panic mode trying to work out what on earth I can make them!  I wondered to myself at the time who was good at them, and immediately thought of Sav, over at Savannahland2!  She comes up with such funky ideas, she really inspires me to think a little differently!   I got to know Sav initially through being on the DT with her over at the Play Date Cafe, but we have become really good 'virtual' friends (yet to meet in real life..but it will happen!).  We mail each other frequently.  It's incredible the friendships you can build just by sharing the same interests.  As she would say I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

For this card I used the Tim Holtz die for the label, some Unity stamps from Sav, a bit of twine and some distress ink that I used for the ledger paper.  The perfectionist in me wanted to re-stamp the 'rock-on' sentiment, but I had to just 'let it go' because I'd already done the rest of the card by then! 

I will be back on Wednesday with a little card for the Tiffany Doodles challenge on Wednesday and then again on Thursday with another card for the Play Date Cafe challenge.  You will be sick of me by the end of the week!  I'm still away during the week for my treatment, so if you don't get a reply to comments straight away do bear with me I will pop over to your blog as soon as I can!

I've toned it down a shade... what do you think?!

Hi everyone

Did you all have a good weekend?  I hope you got lots of creating done!   It's been busy for us, so I haven't had a minute to pop round and say hello to my blogging friends, but I will be round as soon as I can.

I hope to be back later on today to post a card I made using the new {ippity} stamps, but until then I just thought I'd share a little card I made for the Limelight Papercrafts challenge. I didn't come across the challenge until too late, but loved it so much I knew I needed to try out the sketch as I have quite a few cards to make for an order.

The colours are a bit more muted than I normally use, but I wanted to play around with my new Basic Grey papers.

This is the sketch from Limelight... Such a cute little sketch, and it could be used in so many different ways.  I'll leave you with the deets.  Have a great day!

Dies: Tim Holtz - Tattered Flowers
Stamps: Papertrey Ink - Signature Greetings
Papers: Basic Grey Kyoshi, Bazzill Cardstock
Accessories: Brilliance Graphite Black inkpad, SU! border punch

Quick and simple card

Good evening! Well it is over here in the UK anyway!

This is going to be a super quick post, I just wanted to share a quick and simple card with you that I made a while ago. I have been quite busy making cards for challenges today, but haven't had chance to photograph them yet.  I'd intended to enter it into the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge, but missed the deadline!

If you'd like the information of what I've used just leave me a comment.

Enjoy the rest of your day/evening! 

Ciao for now!

Evil Pom Poms!!!

Ok, ok, so they may look cute but....

I send a lot of congratulations cards to do with my job and needed a really quick one to get out in the post today.  I decided it was about time I used my little pom poms. 

Oh boy, they are something else to try and get stuck down!!  Every time I walked away from the card the pom poms fell off!!  Grrr!!  In the end I had to use my heat gun to warm the glue again and then they finally set.  What was supposed to be a quick and easy card turned into a right fiasco!!

Ruffle Flowers

Happy Weekend everyone!!

It has not long gone midnight here and I just thought I would blog a couple of cards that I've been playing with today.

Dawn McVey made this card using some GORGEOUS ruffle flowers, and the minute I saw them I just knew I needed to play!  The cards are totally CASED, because there was absolutely nothing that I wanted to change about them.    If you scroll down the post a bit you will see that she has done a brilliant tutorial on them. The flowers are such good fun to make, you have to try them!  I can't get enough of them!  I keep looking at different variations of papers that I could use for the backgrounds lol.   (Now I'm hoping that it's ok to copy a card and then link it, so I'm going to hop on over to Dawn's blog and leave her a comment to let her know. I'm still not totally familiar with what you can/cannot do in the world of blogging, so if anyone thinks I'm doing anything wrong please would you let me know!!)

I used double sided DP for the orange card which made it even easier to decide on the combinations!  The back of the October Afternoon paper was dotty too but I decided to use the blue to tie the whole card together.

 I can't decide whether I like the bigger flower/card or the smaller one.  What do you think?  

I have so many thank you cards to make, it was nice to be able to do a few quick ones without having to think too hard about it. You should never work your brain too hard on Saturdays, it's the rules lol.

I'm not sure if you can see in the photos but for the centre of the buttons I was going to use string, but realised I hadn't got the right thickness, so I just cut a slither of the DP and used that instead.   You have to be quite gentle with it because it snaps but you can  make a little knot and it looks quite effective.  As you can see I still can't photograph my cards properly but hopefully you get the idea!!  

Supplies used;

Blue-Brown Ruffle Flower;  

October Afternoon DP - 'Weathervane - Chilly Mornings'

Basic Grey - 'Figgy Pudding - Glacier'

Blue Bazzill cardstock

Button by Doodlebug design 

Fiskars 'Treading Water' punch

Orange Ruffle Flower;

October Afternoon???  (there was no labelling on it, sorry)

Terracotta Bazzill cardstock

Button from stash
Fiskars 'Treading Water' punch

I am hoping to make a card or two tomorrow, depending on how the day pans out, so I will be back then.  Enjoy the rest of your day if it's still daytime for you, and sweet dreams if it's not!

Got the blues?!

Hi everyone

How has your week been? Mine was ok until yesterday when I had to have root canal treatment...eeeuuuuuu and ouch!!! All better now though and the dentist I saw was lovely, he talked to me all the way through the process. He must have seen the look of horror when he went anywhere near my mouth lol. I'm not a very good example to Natasha, am I?! I do try to be brave!! Mind you, I'm not sure what was more painful, the treatment or the dent it left in our wallets!

So, have you all had lots of time to make some lovely cards? Here's one I made, it was for a really good friend of mine, she loves blues.

I think it probably speaks for itself, but just in case you would like to know how I made it... I cut two strips of different coloured DP. On the green paper I cut a border using a MS hole punch. Finally I tied around a piece of ribbon and a sentiment. It was so perfect for her, because she just loves these colours. I don't think you can really see in this picture, but the paper has sparkle on it. It's really pretty.

I'm not sure if you remember but some time ago I entered a competition for a 'Trollbead' on www.trollbeads.com Well, all entrants were going to receive the winning bead. This is it, it's called 'Pax', what do you think??


I'm really looking forward to seeing it. It's a dove with its wings wrapped around the earth and symbolises peace. I'd love to know...do any of you collect Trollbeads?

Well, I'm off now. I will be back again tomorrow with another Corrosive Challenge Blog post. You will have to wait until then to see what Janet has lined up for you by way of a challenge this week.

Until then have a great evening. I'm off to put my feet up. We have our first weekend of no visitors in a long time so we're all making the most of it! :o)

ps - the sentiment tag is from Craftwork Cards, the paper was 'The All Dressed Up' mat stack by DCWV and the ribbon is from my stash. Ciao!

Quick Man Card!

Hi everyone

I had set this post to go earlier this week, but mustn't have done it right! Have you all had a good day? My 'Sis' and her man are over, so I've not made any cards this weekend. (Yes, she is still talking to me after my comment on the royal card!)

Today's card is a quick male card. As you all know by now male cards aren't my forte. I always find mine look a bit naff somehow.

For this card I used my Basic Grey mat pad, cutting out two rectangles in different papers, then two squares, one larger than the other so that I could put '40' in it. I wrapped some dotty brown ribbon around the larger rectangle. As Heidi Van Laar puts it I 'fussy' cut the banner, once in cream and again larger in brown, which I then added the letters to. I love the way she says that because I hate cutting out small areas, so it always makes me giggle. Decoupage is one kind of card I would hate making, so hats off to all of you that have the patience for that! You should check out her blog, she does some amazing cards, I love them!

Dies: Sizzix 'Wango' Alphabet Set, 'Easy Peasy' Alphabet Set
Paper: Basic Grey 'Archaic' (I think!)
Accessories: Brown and white polka dot ribbon from stash

Soldiering on I will continue in my quest to make a great male card! I look to you all for inspiration :o)

Going Retro

Hi guys

How's your weekend going? It's been really muggy here all day and we finally have a thunderstorm and lightning which should clear the air.

I am not at home today but I had five minutes to do a quick posting of a card I made the other day. I thought I would try and go a bit retro! I needed to make my cousin's other half a card for his 40th birthday but I wanted something a bit more colourful, rather than the browns/greens/blues for men's cards that I normally use.

I also wanted to use some string and this simple card is what I came up with. I cut out two pieces of paper, rounding the right hand edges. I then cut out a star from a piece of DP and mounted it onto a black circle. I tied some string around the top layer and added the white circle which had been matted onto black. I added the '40th' sticker. Having stuck down the bottom rectangle I pop dotted the top one to allow for the string and then added the star.

Don't forget to enter the Corrosive Challenge competition today. The theme is for a folded card this week. I really enjoyed moving away from the traditional square/rectangle card. It was fun. Head on over there now, there's still time to join in!

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday :o)

A little bird told me...

Oh my goodness, where has the week gone?! Has it really been nearly a week since I've posted? It's gone 1am here so technically it's actually hitting a week! I'm hyper tonight, I think I've had too much Pepsi Max! I've been making cards this week but I haven't put them on yet so will do them one at a time over the next few days, just to keep you a little interested!!

So have you all had a good week?

I found out this week that I am going to get a free trollbead :o) For those of you that aren't sure what a trollbead is go to http://www.fabletrading.co.uk/. I had put the link in for you, but it's not working properly. Trollbeads are one of my obsessions, that along with cardmaking, vanilla coffee, chocolate .. etc lol. Hmmm, me thinks the least said about that little list the better!

Anyway, at the end of May I entered a competition to design a 'People's Bead'. It wasn't very good. I can't draw to save my life but anyone that entered won a bead! My friend entered too (with a fab design might I add! She *can* draw!) but she thought it had to be in silver. Well me doing it all last minute didn't read that bit so I sent in a design for a glass one lol. It did have a *tiny* bit of silver at the top and bottom but I doubt if that would count! Earlier this week I got an e-mail announcing the winner and saying that everyone gets a bead for entering. Woohoo! I LOVE my trollbeads. I have a birthday coming up in September and I'm hoping to get lots of beautiful little beads then. I'm crossing my fingers and toes for them. If you see anyone I know put in a good word for me, won't you?!!! ;o)

Enough of my nattering, onto a card. Today I thought I would share a quick make card with you. It was fun to do because the little birds are so cute, don't you think?!!!

The paper is by Three Bugs in a Rug and in the range they have die cut shapes to match. This range is called 'Happy Bird-Day', cute :o)

I think if you have the paper in front of you it's pretty self explanatory but basically all I did was stuck a piece of bird paper to the base card which I'd rounded the corners on, popped out the sentiment tag, and stuck it onto the back of the bird paper (it's double sided with polka dots). I rounded off the top corners and pop dotted it to the bird paper. I then added a polka dot strip at the bottom and made a pretend ribbon thingy to thread through the hole on the tag and voila, job done!

Hope you like it. I'll be back soon, promise!

PS. Don't forget to enter the challenge over at Corrosive Challenge Blog. There's a fab prize this week!

You're a Star

Happy Friday everyone!! I can't believe it's the weekend already, can you? I must be getting old, the time seems to be going by quicker and quicker lol

Today I have another quick make card to show you. For some reason at the moment I'm into stars and circles. I whipped up a quick boyz birthday card for one of our friends. Did you notice that I haven't used a challenge for it this time, be amazed..be very amazed!! I do love my challenges, they are great for getting my mojo going!

I think this card is self explanatory, so will just leave you with the recipe.

Dies: Sizzix 'Circles #2', Quickutz Star
Paper/Card: 3 Bugs in a Rug 'Seeing Stars - Twinkle', Bazzill Bling & Classic
Accessories: Stampendous birthday phrase stickers

Hope you all have a lovely Friday and I will try and post something over the weekend.

Hugs, Ruby ♥

Spot the Present!

Hi again

Just a quick post tonight, it's way past my bedtime :o)

I wanted to enter the Use It! Challenge #3. If you haven't been over there yet you should check it out, it's a great way to use up your old bits and pieces that you perhaps like to admire but never use!! The challenge this week was set by Heidi Van Laar (I LOVE her designs!) and she wanted us to use something that's a year old (my present cutter) some eyelets (white ones from about 300+ that I hardly ever use!) and polka dots (paper downloaded from Pink Petticoat - see link in side bar)

I also saw a challenge over at 365 cards, day 19 - 'Keep it to Yourself', where you have to make a birthday card without using any sentiment and thought this card would fit for that too.

Well...this picture drove me nuts! It looks perfect white in Photoshop, as the card is, and as soon as I upload it to Blogger it goes a shade of pink!! Hopefully you can still get the idea! As you can see it's a very simple card. I printed and cut out some black and white polka dot paper. Using my Fiskars Treading Water punch I cut out the turquoise border and then cut the present, adding eyelets. I'm quite pleased with the overall effect, it's not my normal style but sometimes I like to try something a bit different.

I'm off to bed now, sweet dreams or enjoy the rest of your day depending where you live!

Ciao!

Mother's Day / 365 Card Challenge #18

Hi there

I am having a BAD chocolate day! I'm managing to remain at goal weight but with everything going on I could eat chocolate constantly. I can't tell you the number of times I've been to my fridge today to get out some chocolate only to tell myself I don't need it!!! I know, you're thinking 'why does she have it in the house?' Well, I have to confess I am better having one square a day than not having it at all because then I just go mad on it. I keep telling myself, 'T-T-T' (Tongue, Tummy, Thighs!) It works for me every time!! Hence the need to blog, takes my mind off it. It's odd, I seem to go through phases like this, do any of you do that??

Have you seen the 365 Card Challenge site? I think I will have to add it to my list of things to do when I move. This challenge site basically gives you a challenge every day. Can you imagine how many fab cards you would have by the end of the year, and also how much of your stash you will have used instead of storing!! I think it's a great idea. I thought I would enter the following card for their 'Going Green' challenge, well it's got some green in it, if that counts!!! Ok, so it's Day 18 that I'm entering for, but it's a start isn't it?!!

I made this card for Ian's Mum for Mother's Day. I have been wanting to use these papers for a while now but could never quite get them to work, they seemed dull somehow. Well my friend Hedgie came over the other day and brought her papers with her for us to do a Mother's Day card. Hmmm, now I knew I'd have to try and use them because she'd gone to the trouble of picking out papers for us! She paints so she is great at matching colours together. She also makes the most AMAZING teddy bears, you know those antiquey looking ones (I'm sure there's a proper name for them) She is going to open up her own business with them..one day! I do keep nagging :o) It's amazing the work that goes into them though. I wouldn't have the patience, that's why I like cardmaking - you see results quite quickly!

Anyway, this is the outcome....



Dies: None..shock horror! I actually just used a simple flower punch! ('Retro Flower' by EK Success)
Paper: Bazzill Basics, Cosmo Cricket 'Honey Pie - Avery & Ella' (What a fab name..Honey Pie!)
Stamps: 'Happy Mother's Day' by Azadl Earles - it's an old one, sorry! Rae from 'Use It' would be proud of me using up my old bits and pieces ;o)

I really like how the ribbon looks like the stem/leaves of the flower. That was actually totally unintentional. I thought the knot needed to go at the bottom because there was a gap there and lo and behold a stem emerged! It's another basic design, but I think it could be used over and over again for lots of different cards. You could change the papers around to make it more traditional/funky. It could have an image stamped in the middle, and then change the flower to a sentiment on a circle/tag, you could change the flower for a star if you wanted to make it masculine. Most of my cards are basic at the moment, because there are boxes all over the place and not much room to create. I hope you still like them though :o)