Just a quickie

This weeks dare... a quick card! It took about 10 minutes in all, but that didn't include picking what I was going to use, and finding it. Cosmo Cricket papers, K&Co sentiment, Papermania brads and a sizzlits corner die.

Shrink to Fit (aka how small is 5x5cm!)

Kathy set a stonker of a dare this week, and, although I finished my card on Tuesday, I've only just had a moment to photo it and upload.
Papermania embellies, K&Co papers, Sizzix Corner die and clear stamp... I can't remember but if you really want to know send me an email!

4 of the best

Buttons, Frame it, Handcutting and Ribbon, all together in one card, phew!
Now remind me not to say why don't we do all four together next time before actually thinking about when I'm going to do it myself, oops.The sentiment is inside the card like the Pirate card below but you can't really see that in the photo, I'll try and get a better one in the daylight tomorrow. Stamps are new Autumn Leaves, scrummy! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas :)

Ribbon Recipe

Yep, more ribbony loveliness from the DCM blog. This time a recipe to use...

4 brads/eyelets

3 circles

2 rectangles

and lashings of ribbon!

Ribbon is as before from Ribbon Oasis. One of my favouritest places to get ribbon from, the mini kits are fabarooo! Now I've been a bit over Christmassified so I decided to ignore the festive seasons approach and make a card for any occasion...

The felt ribbon is lush and I love the stitched edge, makes it look like you've spent ages sewing it lol! The Christmas ribbons DCM entries are all amazing but there's still plenty of time to enter and win some ribbon, you can never have too much in my opinion!

Smile

I've been given an award by Ying Pang and Nic!
I'm so glad I've made people smile, its such an important thing to spread a little joy round the world. I'm so inspired and uplifted by all the things I see and read in crafty blog world but here's my favourites who've made me smile recently. And darn it, loads of you have been nominated already but if you've done it already and I nominated you, sorry I must have missed it!

Kate
Dingle
Jo
Saffa
Keryn
Scrapbook Widower, so funny cause it's true!
Tracie
Lisa
Louly
Joanne

Pass on the smiley award if you have time!

And finally a card! Done for a Just Bex Challenge, Bloomin Christmas!

Basic Grey... Joy!

Whoohoo! I made it into the Basic Grey Gallery! I love their papers so much, what a buzz! This is the card I submitted and it's shown here, using the gorgeous Phoebe papers. It makes cutting up those papers worthwhile... This was actually made for Jo's frills dare ages ago, *blush* but better late than never eh!

Check this!

Friday already! Jane's dare this week is to use checks or squares....

So I raided my paper collection and came up with this!


Papers are HOTP, DCWV, Making Memories; Spotty ribbons are Berisfords; Stamps are Melissa Fraces, Studio G and Sassafrass Lass; Papermania Brads; Rob & Bob Clip and hand drawn stitching.

Check out the other cards on the Daring Cardmakers Blog!

Happy Cardmaking

You're not the EMboss of me

Another busy week in the land of soon to be Mrs Reid. Lots going on and no time to blog it, wah!
Anyway, onto this weeks dare...What a fantastic challenge Lythan set for this weeks Daring Cardmakers Dare! Made even better by the fact I now have 12 of the gorgeous big Cuttlebug embossing folders, totally droolable! I love the fact its instant embossing, none of this spending 3 hours at a lightbox, then inking or chalking it and realising you preferred it before! Here's my cards.

With both these cards I used Cuttlebug Embossing folders, white core card and sandpaper. I love the distressed look it gives when the white core comes through. It looks great on metallic card too.That's all from me today, Ive got a drop in workshop to finish preparing for tomorrow so it's all go!
Taataa for now!

Rhi x

I can see Clearly

It's Kel's turn to set the dare for this Weeks Daring Cardmakers Dare and what a fab one it is! To use Acetate, vellum or something clear and see through ish, fantastic. I left it very late this week, I had plans to do it last night after work but then just ended up flopping on the sofa instead. Luckily I woke up at 5.30 am (so very unlike me!) with an idea and got the sewing machine out to try and sew quietly, totally impossible but I think I may have just got away with it. It could have been worse, my other idea involved hundreds of eyelets!
I used printable acetate, the stuff which has a slightly rougher side and is much easier to stamp on, my Autumn Leaves Swirl stamps and Brilliance white ink. I then sewed it onto a plain black textured card, added ribbon, Dunhelm bloom in black and some ickle tags on the sides. The greeting in the middle is another one of those fantastic cuttlebug embossing folders, inked to make it stand out. I'm quite pleased with the overall effect, I like the contrast between the shiny and the matt. The cards this week on the DCM blog are amazing and all so different and its great to see that loads of you are joining in and sharing your creations. Forgive me I haven't had time to go and look round all the blogs yet but I hope to catch up very soon.

Fab Weekend & CPS 15

What a fab weekend I had with my 'Best Girl' Ailey. We found her a bridesmaidyish dress that is so pretty and most importantly can be worn again. We also happened to stop by a Paper Mill Shop so I popped in and got some of the little clear stamp sets for £1.49. Ailey was ooooing and ahhing over the DCWV fairytale papers - another paper addict in the making I think. We watched some Sex in the City, I got my nails and hair done and generally stayed up too late and had a fab girly time, thanks Ailey.

Of course a long weekend just means theres the same amount of work squished into less days so this week's been hectic so far. Managed to take 10 minutes out yesterday to make a quick card with the CPS sketch though. Now I really must stop procrastinating and get on with my list...

Resists

I spent a good few hours yesterday playing with resist techniques. These cards are made by embossing a background image in clear embossing powder, using inkpads direct to paper then ironing off the embossing powder, its fun and you can get a lovely effect using coloured card. I've made quite a few and have a whole pile of papers to use now. Most of the stamps Ive used are from yesterdays delivery except the background stamps which are Anna Griffin, Lost Coast and Purple Onion, what fab names some stamp companies have! This purple card is inspired by the CPS sketch of the week. I meant to do a resist with clear embossing powder but picked up the clear holographic by mistake so I left it sparkly instead of ironing it off and matched it with some ribbon that has sparkles too.

Fantastic news, it's all arranged and Im definately going to the Stamp show in Edinburgh on the 3rd of June with my fab crafty friends, you know who you are, I can't wait!

Tuesdays Little Extra

Over on the Daring Cardmakers Blog we have a fab sketch for this weeks Little Extra and some gorgeous cards to get you inspired. Here's my effort!I used some of my brand spanking new BG Perhaps papers I got the other day, they are just gorgeous, blooms and Papermainia pearl Brads. A simple little card really, I didnt want to cover up too much of that droolable paper.

And guess what the postie brought me! Some new stamps and Prima's from Bargain Garden off ebay, recommended by Lynne. What a fab seller! I have to say I was a little dissapointed with the number of blooms in the little Prima tins til I realised the tins have a magnetic base, Cool mini fridge magnet scrapbook altered thingys here we come! Now if someone could find me an extra few hours in the day to play that would be perfect!

Oranges and Raspberries

Wow I seem to be in a bright mood! Matching the glorious sunny day it is here :) This card is based on the sketch on Bex's forum and I really fancied using some of my DCWV pocket ful of posies Paper pad. The colours really are gorgeous. Blooms from Sarah's cards, Papermainia Brads, worded ribbon from Little Silver Hat and textured background is my new cuttlebug embossing folder.Thanks Bex, great sketch!

Here's two I made earlier!

Don't you just love it when a plan starts coming together! We were round at Matt's Mum's for brunch and a big wedding-ey chat, we're really getting somewhere now, loads is done, though theres always going to be a last minute rush I think. Here's a couple of custom cards I made last night, the second one is the one that made all the mess I was on about and the first one, well while all the surfaces were covered I thought I'd do it too! The green flower on the Helen one has come up all funny in the photo, it really does match better in real life! It's been a dreich (for those not in Scotland see here) kind on day, but hey ho, makes the sunny ones even nicer!

Speaking of here's one I made earlier, have you seen the things they're doing on Blue Peter recently? Theres a super cool Star Wars Sand Village and a pop up dog card. The viewer entries look a million miles away from my childhood efforts, but then there's only so much you can do with safety scissors and glue that won't stick 3d things properly. Hooray for hot glue guns, double sided tape and being old enough to use a cutting blade unsupervised!

Wings!

It's friday and that can mean only one thing! A new Daring Cardmakers challenge to dare all you cardmakers to try something different. This weeks is no exception. Jane set us a dare to incude wings on a card. As Ive had a mega busy week I made this one based of a card I'd done before. It uses hero arts & firefly stamps and one that came free with Craft Stamper.
To be honest I felt it was a bit of a cop out and it wasn't anything new for me, so when my Phoebe papers arrived from ATDML I decided to use them straight away and somehow found an extra hour. They are just gorgeous, I love the retro shapes and the funky floral designs *drool*

This second card is rather tenuously linked to wings through the quote which I really like. It seems to be attributed to so many different people on the internet I'm really not sure who first wrote it. I spaced the text how I wanted it in Photoshop and then printed it onto Acetate to make an overlay. Its only attached to the card with the brads through the middle of the flowers but its really secure. I just love these colours together, so pretty.
There are an amazing array of cards on the Dare Blog this week and a givaway, so if you haven't joined in yet, its the perfect time to give it a go.

Happy Creating!

Poundland!

Don't you just love that shop! You can usually pick up some crafty bargains there, whether its kits or mini scrapbooks and of course four rolls of Double Sided tape, in the DIY section, for a pound. Who needs sticky dots eh! Heres my latest, some fake flowers that are going to be disassembled and used as blooms on cards.

I had a lovely few hours in the garden yesterday, and after I'd finished and was sitting having a cuppa in the sun the cats came out and posed for me! I'm no photographer but Im quite pleased with these, theyre such cuties! And the garden's not looking too bad either.

Friday!

We have had such a cool dare this week. To play with absolutely gorgeous papers from Self Addressed and a fun template, it doesn't get much better than that. The papers and kits they do are scrumptious and I've often gone green when Kathy, Lythan and Lynne get the latest droolable kit so actually seeing them in real life and getting to stroke them was such a treat. A sub is very high on my wishlist after the wedding! Still on a stash diet until then, poo!

All the card and paper is from SA except the blank, some inking , a few blooms layered, 2 ribbons and a couple of Sassafrass Lass stamped brackets is pretty much all I added. Finally a dovecraft brad coloured with chocolate embossing powder to attach and thats it. Its quite a busy card for me and has lots going on whereas usually my cards are a lot simpler but Im pretty happy with it. You can catch up with a whole host of impressive cards on the Daring Card Makers blog. Thanks Jenn for sponsoring out dare, it was great fun.


I had a lovely day teaching yesterday and my students produced some fantastic cards that were out of their comfort zone. It was really enjoyable to see how much fun they had! If you're in Dundee at a loose end on a thursday afternoon I still have a few places left, get in touch for details.

Its such a sunny day now and I think its time to tend to the veg patch and leave the inside work for another day, I love being self employed! Enjoy yourself whatever you're up to :)

Monday monday

Some exciting news I can finally share! I'm now published, very exciting! Im designing for The Wedding Crafter who do loads of fab bits for wedding stationery. Its a very exciting opportunity and its getting me all wedding-ed up. Ok, I know its not a word, but how else do you describe it!

I'd just like to say thank you all for your lovely comments. Its great to know who's reading my blog! I had a brilliant play over the weekend with the goodies Sarah sent me and it was great fun. Thanks again for making my weekend. I used Becky Fleck sketches for inspiration, I love her Page Maps library, its fabulous. If you haven't seen it, its worth a look.


The wedding planning is going really well, so much is organised already and I'm surprisingly calm. I'm planning on getting the invites finished over the next week or so and my shoes have arrived in the shop! 3 of my favourite styles in my size for me to try on and choose from, fab! If youre local, its Elegance in Letham, so friendly and helpful. How high a heel can I actually walk in though, lol.

I was so glad it rained this weekend, I was starting to think it would never happen, and now all the trees have finally burst into green. It was so odd having the May blossom out when the leaves were still in bud. Plus, it gave me the perfect excuse to hide away crafting and meant I didn't have to do my 8 watering can round!

CPS#9

I had to make a Thank you card last night and as I had no inspiration, (thats what making a gazzillion wedding invites does for you!) I had a look round some of the fabby sketch blogs that are going. This is the Card Positioning Systems sketch of the week and it's lovely and simple, so nice and quick for me!

Thank you is printed using 2peas Garden Girls font and papers are Basic Grey Blush, a few primas and brads and thats it!

Strictly Monochrome

Sorry about the lack of updates, we've had friends staying so its been mega busy here. Its our friends from france that I've done the invites for and I'm glad to say they love them even more seeing them all ready to go, phew! Plus we went and stocked up on uk stamps for them because the price is going up again on monday! Grrr!

Lythan was in super strict mode when she set this fantastic dare. You can do ANYTHING you like on a card BUT you can only use one colour!

This was quite scary at first but as soon as I got some things out in colour groups I had great fun. Birthday in Browns uses Dunhelm bloomers, a fabby gift from Nic, an Anna Griffin stamp for the border under the brown grosgrain, wooden button which has been in my button box forever, Rhonna farrer Swirl stamps on handmade tissue paper and Happy Birthday Hampton Stamps.

Next I decided to go girly pink! Blooms from Sarah's Cards and LCC, papermainia brads, magenta grosgrain, rob and bob paper and a Thanks sizzlits die cut

There is such a fantastic rainbow of cards on the Daring Card Makers blog. We've been reminiscing about Rainbow and I've been singing the theme tune all week, love it!

Happy cardmaking, I can't wait to see all the reader contributions for this one!