Cr***y day..pretty card....

I've had ONE CRAPPY DAY TODAY!!!! I woke up with a fierce headache at 5am (took 2 Panadol-no effect) went back to bed..got up at 6 'cos I couldn't sleep..2 more Panadol at 8am..still no effect...said Hello to the big white telephone (YUK!)..laid on the sofa feeling like hell. I'd had enough by 11am so I called the surgery,spoke to the triage nurse and she got me an appointment at 11.1o! Doctor tells me I've got 'time of life' Migraine!!! Hells Bells! I've never had a Migraine in my life let alone a 'time of life one! I wasn't even aware I'd got to that 'time of life' yet! I've also got high blood pressure (had it for 2 yrs-that's why I was worried about the headache & vomiting) so I've got to have an ECG and blood tests..it never rains but it pours!
Anyway less medical matters more cardmaking....
This is another shortfall-front card. I just love the pattern/colour combo on this card. I matted striped glittery paper and polka dot paper (DCWV) onto silver mirri and adhered the pieces to the back and front of the card. I added another panel to the front of the card with a punched trim,script paper, silver ribbon and a white poinsetta with snowflake centre. The bauble was cut from white glittercard and backed with a silver mirri embossed blackout. I added blue gems and a teeny ribbon bow. The sentiment was drawn with a blue Cri-Kit pen then coloured in with silver and blue glitter pens. A scattering of gems complete the card.
Carts used:
Bauble- Trim The Tree Seasonal Cart
Sentiment- Winter Frolic
Thanks for dropping by!
Heather xxx

Nan's Cat.........

It's my Mum's birthday today (Monday)...Happy Birthday Mum!.....and these are the cards that I made for her. She has two beautiful cats-Milly & Molly-so I thought that a cat themed card would be appreciated. I used a pop-up stepper for the base card, Melody Ross-Lydia Collection papers by g.c.d,glittercard for the pussycat and some punched flowers. The sentiment is by Pink Petticoat...

For the card from hubby & me I used a bow front aperture card, Papermania papers, a beautiful full blown Prima rose,pearl strands and a verse printed onto Safmat to go inside the aperture.

Carts used:

Nan's Cat:

Cat & Bird on spade-A Child's Year

Scalloped circle & 'NAN'- Winter Woodland

Flourishes on side panels-Winter Frolic

Bow Front Aperture:

Scalloped oval frame-Ashlyn's Alphabet

'Mum'-Beyond Birthdays

Corner Flourishes-Heritage

Thanks for looking!

Heather xxx

Candle-lit Christmas......

I've got another short-fall card for you today. I used that troublesome cartridge again...it's not often that I wish that I hadn't bought a cartridge but maybe this is one of them! If you don't use a relatively new mat, all the curly wurly bits get chewed up and you have to start again....and you can bet your bottom dollar that the chewin' up starts when the cut is almost complete, so you have to start again! Grrrr!!!!
Anway, back to the card. I cut the front down to 3 1/2" then adhered paper to the front and back. I cut a smaller rectangular panel and adhered the fillagree candle to it. The candle was cut (at the 3rd attempt!) from gold mirri, and I cut 2 more candles in pearlescent gold and red mirri card. I chopped them apart and adhered them to the back of the gold mirri candle. This was adhered to the smaller panel with foam pads. See that sentiment panel? If you look closer (click on the picture) you'll see that the sentiment was actually DRAWN! Some cuts don't survive if they are too intricate and being cut small. I have some Cri-Kit pens from Scappy-Go-Lucky UK , they are like mini gel pens, and you take the blade housing out, put the magnetic pen holder with the pen in it in it's place and press 'CUT'. The resultant image can then be cut by re-inserting the blade housing or (as I did) coloured in. I added some red Stickles to 'wishes' then adhered it to the card front. Some sumptuous ribbon, a poinsetta and some punched holly leaves complete the card.
Carts used:
Candle-Trim The Tree
Christmas Wishes (drawn with Cri-kit pens)-Winter Frolics
Thanks for visiting & have a great weekend!
Heather xxx

Rockin' robin.....

Here's a cheeky chappie for you! This little chap is not a robin in the cartridge handbook, but I turned him into one! I cut him from brown, bronze and red glittercard and gave him a googly eye. He was then mounted with foam pads onto an embossed panel matted onto a scalloped rectangle. The sentiment was cut from red card then glittered. The papers are Papermania Festive Frolics (see how the robin looks like those on the paper!) I added a spotty bow, a poinsetta and a smattering of red gems to complete the card.
Carts used:
Robin & sentiment-Simply Charmed
Scalloped frame-A Child's Year
Thanks for visiting today!
Heather xxx

Welcome Little One......

Just a quick one this morning 'cos I'm off to work later.... I haven't made a pop-out stepper for a while..these were the last two that I made..when I make baby cards I HAVE to make one for a boy and one for a girl. I used a variety of papers from my stash,gingham ribbon,layered blooms and an MS punch.

Some punched hearts and a smattering of pearls complete the cards.

Carts used:

Scalloped/plain circles-Winter Woodland

Nappy Pin-New Arrival

Dummy & sentiment-Simply Charmed

I cut the 'Welcome' part of the sentiment apart to allow it to curve around the edge of the circle.

Thanks for visiting today!

Heather xxx

Fillagree tree......

Here's the other card made from the Trim The Tree seasonal cartridge, and I can tell you this cut was trouble! I tried glittercard (didn't want to know!) several times I tried mirri card (didn't like the curly-wurly bits!) and had to use a brand new mat (grrrrr!) to get a usable cut. Then the blackout didn't look right- the left hand side of the tree towards the bottom didn't match the right hand side. At first I thought that the cartridge was faulty 'til I looked at the leaflet that came with the cart- it was missing on that too! Well I didn't like it like that and quite frankly couldn't think why it should be like that. So I adhered the blackout anyway and added a piece of mirri to the 'missing' portion then cut around it so that it matched! Now I'm happy with it. I added some red gems to the stars on the cut then adhered it to the embossed panel (the card base is made in exactly the same way as yesterday's by the way) with foam pads.
Carts used:
Tree- Trim The Tree Seasonal cart
Thanks for dropping by!
Heather xxx

Ring out the bells tonight.......

Crikey! This card is SO simple and quick! I made a couple (I'll show you the other one tomorrow). The only thing that takes time is getting all the ruddy bits out of the cut! This one wasn't too bad- but tomorrow's-don't even go there!

I used pearlised card throughout for this card, except for the blackout behind the bell which is mirri. I cut a piece of pearlised card slightly smaller than the card front, then matted it onto gold pearlised card and adhered it flat. A smaller white panel was cut, run through a Cuttlebug folder, then matted again onto more pearlised gold card. This piece was adhered with foam pads. A trim was made for the embossed panel with some foiled paper on a punched border wrapped with sheer ribbon. The bell was cut from champagne coloured pearlised card, then the blackout was cut twice from 2 colours of mirri. I cut the bow section off the red bell and adhered it to the complete gold blackout bell, then adhered the pearlised bell to it. The bell was then adhered to the embossed panel with foam pads. Simples!! A sheer bow and some gems on the stars on the bell complete the card.

Cart used:

Bell-Trim The Tree Seasonal Cartridge

ps You need the patience of a blummin' saint with this cart but it's worth it!

See ya later!!

Heather xxx

pps It's not Sunday (date at top of post) it's 7am on Monday!

Oh so classy.......

I've got another 'non-Christmas' card for you today. This one is a shortfall card (the front is narrower than the back) I cut the front of the card to 3 1/2" and punched the edge with an EK Success punch. I then matted some paper from Design Objectives Born To Shop, Bubbles A4 pad onto blue card and adhered it to the inside back and the front of the card. I then cut a panel of blue card, matted it onto white, then adhered a piece of star patterned paper to the blue panel. This was then trimmed with a punched piece of cardstock with blue striped paper adhered to it. I wrapped blue velvet ribbon around the striped paper and added a bow and a large Prima bloom.
I cut a dress form from black cardstock, adding a dress cut from pink card and rose-patterned paper. The completed form was adhered with foam pads to the left hand side of the panel. I cut a scalloped oval from blue cardstock, added a white oval with the sentiment 'Oh so classy' created with rub-ons (oh so) and black cardstock, then adhered it to the top right of the dress form slightly overhanging the front of the card. A smattering of pearls complete the front of the card.

The inside of the card has a simple piece of white card matted onto blue cardstock for a sentiment panel.

Carts used:

Dress form & dress- Nifty Fifties

Scalloped oval-A Child's Year

Plain oval-George

'Classy'-Forever Young

Thanks for visiting today!

Heather xxx

Green Fingers........

Men's cards are always few and far between on blogs that I visit..even mine, I like flowers and ribbon too much and you can't put too much 'frippery' on men's cards can you?...but occasionally, for a change, I'll make a man's card as a challenge more than anything! There aren't too many Cricut cartridges out there that are 'male' related (Sports Mania, Handyman,Dude, Billionaire- PROVOCRAFT PLEASE TAKE NOTE!) and you have to trawl through other carts for something to adapt. I came up with card with elements from an unlikely source (see end of post). The base card is a pop-out stepper decorated with papers from the Dovecraft Woodland Folk A4 pack. I added some knotted 'manly' striped ribbon to the horizontal panel, a wheelbarrow,rake,watering can,garden tools,fence,grass and a handcut flowerpot with a sunflower. The sentiment panel is a piece of ripped cream card mounted onto brown card, bradded at the corners, and the sentiment was created with Cricut generated letters and 'Heidi' rub-ons. The sentiment panel was then adhered with foam pads to complete the card.
Carts used:
'Green'-Lyrical Letters
Sunflower stem-Just Because Cards
Grass & Fence-Paper Doll Dress Up
All other cuts-Everyday Paper Dolls
Thanks for visiting and don't be scared to leave a comment!
Heather xxx

From The Heart......

I'm just loving these Prima roses at the moment (what's not to love?!) and I'm using this particular arrangement quite a lot. There isn't too much to this card because the paper is so pretty. The side panels have no embellishment on them as the paper alone is too pretty to cover up! I just added some glitter randomly. A EK Success Chain border punch was used for the horizontal panel, I just added some lilac ribbon across the centre of the ribbon, a bow to one side & white pearls to the other. The shaped panel was cut from more patterned paper with a lilac shadow then adhered with foam pads to the large centre panel. I added an arrangment of Prima and Wild Orchid Crafts roses and some pearl sprays (also WOC). The sentiment was cut from Purple glitter paper and adhered flat. A smattering of white pearls complete the card.

Carts used:

Shaped panel- Winter Woodland

Sentiment- Stamping Solutions

Thanks for dropping in!

Heather xxx

Never Give Up......

My Christmas card making has come to a halt (except for additions to my workshop samples) as I've been busying myself with general greetings cards. For this card, I used the floral spray in the corner of the front panel as inspiration. The papers are by DCWV and I used two papers, the pale blue floral paper and aqua polka dot for the other panels. All the panels were matted onto chocolate brown cardstock then adhered with foam tape. I added brown polka dot ribbon to the long panel along with a gorgeous Prima bloom. I cut vines for the side panels (one with Flip function enabled) and added brown glittercard flutterbys and punched flowers with gem centres. I added another flutterby to the centre panel along with the glittercard sentiment which was shadowed with more brown card. The sentiment was adhered with foam pads. The punched edge of the centre panel was created with an X-Cut border punch.

Carts used:

Sentiment-Wall Decor & More

Vines-Winter Frolic

Flutterbys-Stamping Solutions

Thanks for visiting!

Heather xxx

I'd rather be shopping!.....

...Not! I hate shopping! Unless it's for Crafty Stash...then I can shop for England! This card looks pink (must be the light!) but it's actually lilac. The papers are from the new Woodland Folk A4 paper pack by DoCrafts. I used a floral and a teeny polka dot print (which is double sided) The card base is a pop-up stepper. I adhered matted polka dot paper to the side and horizontal panels and matted floral paper to the large centre panel. I used the reverse side of the polka dot paper (which I embossed) to make further, smaller panels which were adhered with foam pads. I downloaded a picture of credit cards from Google Images,printed them onto glossy paper, cut them out and adhered them to the side panels with foam pads. The bag was cut from floral paper with pink mirri card trim. The sentiment was cut from pink glittercard with a purple shadow. This was then adhered below the bag. I added ribbon trim on a punched EK Success border, ribbon bows,layered blooms and a gorgeous Prima flower with some punched leaves to finish the card.

Carts used:

Bag-Doodlecharms

Sentiment-Wall Decor & More

Thanks for visiting today!

Heather xxx

Believe......

I must be going down with something!!! I actually made a bog-standard card! I really don't know what came over me, but I had an urge to make a normal card. I've had this gorgeous stamp forever...now I'm definately NOT a stamper...but I make an exception for this stamp. The image is very intricate, with lots of swirls and snowflakes, and the Santa has a pair of specs balanced on his nose. I stamped him in green ink onto cream textured cardstock, cut around it and matted it onto red card. I added some glue with a Quickie glue pen to parts of the image and sprinkled it with glamour dust for a subtle twinkle. The papers on this card are by Dovecraft. 'Believe' was cut from green glittercard with a red shadow, then adhered with foam pads below the image. I added a bow made with fab red & green ribbon, a poinsetta and some punched leaves. A smattering of gems complete the card.

Carts used:

'Believe'-Wall Decor & More

Thanks for looking & have a great weekend!

Heather xxx

Juke Box Birthday.....

It's not only Rememberance Day today ( I have to say I had a tear or two in my eye at 11am), it's my brother Andrew's birthday. My brother's always been musical, teaching himself to play keyboards and guitar and he was an enormous Queen fan. He gigs with my nephew David (his card also had a musical theme-a few posts back) at one of his local pubs, so when I saw this FAB juke box I knew I wanted to use it on his card. I used a pop-up stepper for the base, then covered the base front entirely with black card (re-doing the cuts and scores) Holographic card was used for the panels. They were all adhered with foam tape. The juke box was cut from several different colours of mirror card the assembled with PVA, and foam pads to some parts. The completed juke box was adhered to the front panel with foam pads. 45rpm 'vinyl' records were cut from black watermarked mirri with coloured mirri labels, 'Happy Birthday' was cut from gold mirri with black shadow, and 'Andrew' was cut from red mirri with black shadow. The words 'gig' & 'band' and a smattering of black mirricard notes complete the card.
Carts used:
Happy Birthday-Stamping Solutions
All other cuts- Nifty Fifties
Thanks for looking today
Heather xxx

Oh Christmas Tree......

I told you that I prefer 'off-the wall' colours for Christmas cards diddle I? I really love this pretty lickle card! I used a pop-up stepper for the base and papers from Daisy & Dandelion. Both papers have glittery elements on them. I matted the panels onto pink cardstock then adhered them in place with foam tape. The centre panel is a little longer on this card to accomodate the punched border at the bottom. I wrapped the border with pretty snowflake print ribbon. The stylised tree was cut from white glittercard and varying colours of pearls were added as baubles. I punched a star from dark pink glittercard and adhered it to the top of the tree with silicone glue (only because I wanted it raised, otherwise I use PVA)

'Christmas' was cut twice from pink glittercard with a white shadow, then adhered with foam pads. A few more punched stars with pearl centres complete the card.

Carts used:

Tree & 'Christmas'-Designer's Calendar

Thanks for dropping in!

Heather xxx

A partridge in a pear tree.......

I have another pop-up stepper card for you today. I struggled with this one because it's in traditional colours- I prefer 'off-the-wall' colours for my Christmas cards, but I persevered with it and have to say I'm quite pleased with the finished result. I used Papermania papers (1 double-sided sheet actually) red card for matting & layering, green ribbon and an MS border punch. The reverse spotty side of the paper was used for the side and horizontal panel and the main side Partridge print was used for the main centre panel. I cut a couple of the partridge images out by hand and mounted them onto scalloped circles, then adhered them to the side panels with foam pads. The tree was cut from green card (the cut has baubles not pears) and the partridge from dull gold card. The partridge was adhered to the tree with foam pads. I cut 6 small pears from gold card and adhered them over the baubles. The finished tree was adhered to a white embossed circle, which was adhered flat to a scalloped circle. The wording around the circle was created with teeny peel-off letters coloured black with a permanent marker.The whole thing was adhered to the front of the card with foam pads. A green satin bow adhered beneath the panel, and a smattering of pearls complete the card.

Carts used:

Partridge & tree- Winter Frolic

Scalloped/plain circles-Winter Woodland

Pears-Joys Of The Season

Thanks for visiting today!

Heather xxx

Kenny K's new Kittenz....

I don't stamp but I thought I'd have a go at naming a couple of Kenny's new Kittenz. You can join in the fun here.
I chose Kitten J- Ammara & Kitten L- Shazzamm
Have a go, but it's not easy 'cos they are some hot chicks!!
Heather xxx

Girl with parasol......

' Which cartridge does that cut come from?' I hear you ask. Well, I have to confess..NONE! This is my first card made with a cut using SCAL2 (Sure Cuts A Lot) It's a computer program, something similar to Design Studio, but WAY less fiddly to use! The only drawback with this program is that you CAN'T use it with your carts. You download fonts, dingbats etc from the internet (or you can use fonts on Windows Word etc) then apply the design to the mat on the program, attach your Bug with a USB cable, press cut and, Bob's your Uncle!
The cuts look odd and slightly bumpy on the screen, and cut out realllllllllly slowly but the end result is well worth the wait! If you want to get hold of SCAL2 you can buy it from www.scrappygolucky.com. This 'cut' was downloaded from the internet (I think it's called Wonderful). To find fonts and dingbats type, 'Free fonts & dingbats' into a search engine. www.dafonts.com is a good one to try.
Back to the card. I used a pop-up stepper as my base card, paper from Papermania and an EK Success chain-border punch. The lady with parasol was cut from Gemstones cardstock with a pealised white card blackout, which was embossed. The completed oval was adhered to the card with foam pads. I added some large roses from Wild Orchid Crafts (see previous post for a link), glittery Papermania ribbon & a smattering of pearls. I haven't decided what sentiment to put on it yet but the sentiment will go on a scalloped oval at her feet.
Carts used:
NONE!
Thanks for dropping by!
Heather xxx

Gatefold tree....

I've used a popular kind of fold for this card- a standard gatefold, but I went a little further with this one and punched the short edges of the cardstock with an EK Success border punch before I scored and folded it. I matted some script paper (Papermania) onto some gold mirri and adhered it each of the fronts. I then cut a shaped panel from gold spotted red paper (Papermania) with a gold mirri mat. I wrapped ribbon around it, then adhered another shaped mat, this time embossed, onto it with foam pads. I found the tree on Designer's Calendar and cut it from gold lirri, then added self-adhesive pearls for baubles. The completed tree was adhered with foam pads to the embossed panel.
I glittered a Helibore flower from here and along with some punched gold leaves and a couple of red roses adhered them with silicone glue to the top corner of the panel.
To finish the inside of the card I matted a piece of deep red paper onto gold mirri and added a shaped sentiment panel.
Carts used:
Shaped panels- Winter Woodland
Tree-Designer's Calendar
Thanks for taking a look today!
Heather xxx

Here comes Santa!......

I thought that I'd share a shaped card today..a jolly, rosy cheeked Santa.

I cut 2 santa shapes from white card and joined them together at the top with PVA glue. I then cut another santa shape from flesh coloured card and adhered it to the base card. I added a little chalk to the cheek area to give him some rosyness! The beard and moustache were cut from white textured card then embossed with a Fiskars Texture Plate. The beard was adhered flat and the moustache with foam pads. The hat was cut from red card, the pom-pom added and then adhered to the base card. Googly eyes, a glittery red nose, hand cut eyebrows and a pair of specs made from gold wire complete the card. I also added a computer generated sentiment mounted onto red card and adorned it with punched holly leaves with red gem berries. A second holly bunch adorns Santa's hat.

Carts used:

Card base and Santa face- Doodlecharms

My boss bet me that I couldn't make a card with just ONE cart! HA HA! Told you I could Jennie!

Thanks for looking , have a safe Guy Faulkes night and a great weekend! Also a belated Happy Diwali!!!

Heather xxx

Tri fold prezzie....

A change for you today ( is that a collective sigh of relief that I hear !?) ... a DL tri fold. I created the card on a Hougie Board, cut it on the diagonal, then punched the cut edge with an MS punch. I used Honey & Hugs papers from Papermania , then cut a large parcel from pink mirri card and added a glittercard bow. The parcel was embellished with a layered poinsetta and some punched glittercard leaves. It was then adhered over the punched border with foam pads. 'Christmas Wishes' was cut from green glittercard with a pink mirri shadow. Three candy dots were adhered to the top of the card, covered with glue then sprinkled with Glamour Dust.
Carts used:
Parcel- Joys Of The Season
Christmas Wishes- Winter Frolic
Thanks for looking!
Heather xxx

Candy cane stepper.....

I love these candy canes! I've used them tons of times over the years for cards, hangings etc. They are a Christmas classic..who doesn't love 'em?!
I cut the candy canes from red & white glittercard (they are cut in 2 parts- solid white and red stripe) then adhered them together with PVA glue, which in my opinion is the ONLY adhesive that will stick glitter to glitter. Some people swear by silicone but I've never had any success with it. I criss-crossed the canes and glued them together with PVA again. I added a bow to the cross-over point. The canes were then mounted onto an embossed scalloped circle. The two side panels hold swirly peppermint sweeties on smaller scalloped circles. 'Merry Christmas' was cut from red glittercard and adhered to the bottom of the card with foam pads.
Carts used:
Candy Canes- Joys Of The Season
Scalloped/plain circles-Winter Woodland
Peppermint sweeties & 'Merry Christmas'-Simply Charmed
Thanks for visiting!
Heather xxx

Frosty the snowman........

Oh dear! I fear that I am going to bore you all rigid with these pop-up stepper cards, but like I said...I can't stop making the blessed things!

This one was made with the stunning DCWV Winter Wonder stack. I teamed the papers with navy blue cardstock and some glittery white ribbon, Frosty was cut from white glittercard with a navy hat & scarf and black glittery buttons. I used teeny black gems for his eyes because the eyes cut along with the buttons were soooo small they were practically non-existant! 'Frosty' was cut from blue glittercard with a navy shadow. Both were adhered to a shaped panel cut from patterned paper with a navy shadow, further embellished with a layered glittery snowflake. More cricut-generated & punched snowflakes decorate the side panels, and a scattering of gems complete the card.

Carts used:

Shaped panel, snowman & 'Frosty'- Winter Woodland

Largest snowflakes- Christmas Noel

Thanks for looking!

Heather xxx