Getting ready for Saturday

A few cards today to fill some of the gaps ready for Saturday:















I spent this morning making some Christmas cards from recycled cards. I'm very conscious that people can buy boxes of Christmas cards cheaply these days and so I try to make some for the TEAR Fund sale that are less expensive. I use good quality card and mounts and put inserts in them all, so that they are not 'cheap' cards, but more affordable than ones made from scratch. Perhaps I'll show some tomorrow - I've made about 80 of those so far.

Helpful blogger award

Claire has kindly given me this award. She said:

'I've designed this award which I will pass to bloggers who I think have helped me recently by inspiring me or actually helping me with my craft.

Today I'm going to award this to Maddy for her fabulous PG Tips challenge which I loved and has inspired me to tart more and Hazel for helping me make a concertina card.'

I am so taken aback - it was a pleasure to be able to share what I'd done.

I value the help of other bloggers and forum members and would like to pass this award on to Joanne, such a talented crafter who is always ready to share her expertise both on her blogs and within crafting forums - she so well deserves this.

Please do also have a browse on Claire and Maddy's blogs - very inspirational.

DCM: all mixed up again!

I wasn't happy with my card for this week's dare, but on the way back from London I bought a Crafts Beautiful magazine and there was a pack of die cut embellishments - among them was this one that I've added to my card:



I've tried to redeem myself a bit by making a card that is a bit more mixed up than the first one. This time I chose lilac/purple, with ribbons and a bow added (not normally seen on a man's card) - think I'll give up on this one now! At least it was a chance to play with another of my Cuttlebug embossing borders (and the ribbons hide the lines left from the embossing).

HS:MS SPS

It's SPS on HS:MS today.

This is all that you're going to see of me today:



In a short while we're leaving to go up to St Thomas' hospital for my MRI scan, so someone's going to be seeing a lot more of me today than this!

DCM: all mixed up

Tracie set this dare this week:

'This week's theme is All Mixed Up.
How come the majority of girls' cards are pink and flowery and the boys are blue and have absolutely no flowers at all?
What about cars for girls??? hmmm?
This week Tracie wants you to mix up those genders and create cards with a little bit of something not normally found for that sex.'

I don't think I've really mixed up enough, because I realise now that I used a predominantly blue colour scheme, which is usually stereotyped for a man's card, but I thought the addition of the cuttlebug embossing border with the flowers, inked with blue iris chalk pad, mixed it up a bit - mmm, I'm not convinced, but it was another excuse to play with a new embossing folder.



I'll try and do another card for this dare - perhaps a pink card for a man - got an idea for one.

JB September challenge 1: K.I.S.S.

NickyNoo set this challenge: '.........you know the saying, Keep It Simple, Stupid!

Well, here's a simple little mid-week challenge for you - make a card, any occasion, using 1 piece of patterned paper, 1 embellishment, and 1 sentiment.

K.I.S.S.!!'

I thought while I'd got the K & Co pads out I'd use a piece of Roam for the background. The sentiment and embellishment bits are Branda Pinnick, I think.



Thanks for a good challenge, Nicky. I think I need to make a few more of these.

JB September challenge 2: 15 minute template

On JB Bex has challenged us: 'Ok this is an easy one.
We are all pushed for time so this challenge you only have 15 minutes to produce a quick card for any occassion based on this very simple template.'



Spurred on by what Bex had done, I got out a pad of K & Co amy butler papers that I've had for ages and never used and used one for the background of my card. I used bits from two others from this pad and also a picture from a BF kit from Dream Street papers Hugs n Kisses - postmark. The turquoise strip was embossed with one of my new cuttlebug border folders that arrived this morning - a good opportunity to use it straight away:



Thanks for this challenge, Bex - that's another one in the box ready for next Saturday.

And I just about got it done in the 15 minutes.

Ruby Anniversary card: CBC 14 September challenge

I made this for a friend's anniversary - it didn't look this pink irl:



Thanks to Rachel, I now know that the challenge was set on CBC by Tracy:

' want you to make a card or LO or whatever you like, just as long as it includes a number on it'

BF Think Pink challenge 12:decorate a gift box or bag

On BF forum this week Di set this challenge for Think Pink:

'There are alot of people who simply hate wrapping presents so I thought it would be nice if we had some decorated boxes or gift bags to sell.

So you challenge this week is to Decorate a Gift Box or Bag in any theme you choose.

You can either use a plain gift bag and jazz it up or maybe even make your own.'

Well, I haven't actually decorated a box or a bag, but I've tarted up a tin which could be used to put a present in, or just to keep bits and bobs.

I started off with a tin that I got free with some Boots expert toiletries a while back (I've been wondering what to do with it, but was put off by the writing on the top):



I used alcohol inks (a mixture of stream and red pepper - the nearest I had to pink) on the lid:



and covered the inside with a piece of card (because the lettering was embossed all the way through):



I stuck a band of paper around the tin:



and then added a piece of ribbon around the paper (used Scotch vellum tape so that there was no adhesive showing), a piece of sticky gingham ribbon around the lip of the lid and blooms and big brads stuck on the lid to hide the embossed words:





Most of what was used was from a BF kit - some from the July kit and some from a TP one.

HS:MS enjoy

'To take delight or pleasure in an activity or occasion. Find something you enjoy in your space today.'

The first photo is a cheat - I didn't take it - and it was taken quite some time ago (you can tell that because I'm much slimmer!) - mum and I having enjoyed a share dessert:



The next one I did take, but a while ago while on holiday abroad. This is to show that you can ejoy a cuppa anywhere at any time:

Big Ben

I thought I'd show a picture I took this afternoon as we left St Thomas' hospital after John's eye appointment. I was just glad that my back is feeling a bit better and I was able to go with him - I hadn't been out for a week.

If you want to see a much, much better picture of Big Ben, then go to HS:MS and see Anita's fab photo.

Meanwhile, here's mine:

HS:MS big

'Of considerable size, extent or intensity. Show us something big in your space today!'

My first thought for this was 'big toe', my second thought was 'I'm not showing mine', but I found a willing victim:



I've amended this post to exclude the other picture because of a comment made. I realise that by doing this, anyone now looking will probably think it was much worse than it was - just a picture of John's foot with a block where the second toe was. It's a pity that the person who made the comment chose to remain anonymous.

BF Think Pink challenge 7: tartography

At last I've done a couple of notebooks for BF Think Pink challenge 7: tartography.

I'd almost forgotten how to use my BIA!

The backgrounds of these notebooks are miscellaneous papers that were in my box (I think they were free with magazines). The backs are covered in the same papers and the insides have been covered with coordinating papers.

One for a lady:



One for a man:



Now I need to make some more for the TEAR Fund sale - I've already done a couple more, but not decorated them yet.

Nessy's blog candy

I came across Nessy's lovely blog from her comment left on the new BG challenge blog - she is offering some candy to celebrate her birthday: http://nessysnotes.blogspot.com/2008/09/birthday-blog-candy.html

Nessy said: 'so , to enter for my blog candy, all you need to do is :~ when you have created your girly card/or anything creative with some glitter on it (you know how i love my glitter) from now until the 28th of september, just leave a link to it on my blog and a link on your blog to mine telling everyone about my candy!! there is no need to make a card just for a chance to win some candy ~ just include any card you have made and you are showing on your blog!!'

So here is a birthday card and a Christmas card from me:

Quick way to make concertina zigzag cards

Claire was asking if I had a template for the concertina zigzag cards that I showed here: http://craftyhazelnut.blogspot.com/2008/09/concertina-zigzag-cards.html

I actually bought the ones that have a gingham pattern on them, but I made the four in the top picture.

Step 1: Take an A4 sheet and fold in four landscape:



Step 2: Fold the sheet as shown (if you want a longer bit on the first fold, just adjust the angle of the fold - this will just produce shorter cards:



Step 3: Cut along the crease:



Step 4: Fold each piece to make 2 concertina zigzag cards:



Step 5: Decorate however you wish. You can either then leave the card so that it fully opens, or stick down the zigzag bits so that it's just a simple opening card. I sometimes stick down the edges, that then leaves a pocket to take a tag.

Yesterday's decoupage

I didn't feel like doing anything much yesterday, but I found a couple of die cut decoupage sheets that I'd bought when I thought it would be a good idea (I quite like doing decoupage and sometimes cut by hand, but find it a bit of a chore, so the die cuts seemed to be an attractive alternative).

I decided to go for 'less is more' and just cover the cards with 'season's greetings' foiled card:

HS:MS juicy

'To be full of juice or succulent. Find something juicy in your space today !'







In case you wonder, it's a pear.

HS:MS float

'To be suspended freely in a liquid or gas. Find something floating in your space today.'

Apologies to SuzyB, who featured a great shot of a teabag for the recent 'bag lady' prompt; I was beginning to wonder what to do for today's prompt when I went to the kitchen to make a(nother) cup of tea and thought I'd use this:



Before that shot, I took a ridiculously close one which I wasn't going to include, but which I quite like: