All That Jazz!!!......

On Friday morning Hubby and I and nine friends took the Eurostar from St. Pancras to Brussels, via the Channel Tunnel, to the Brussels Jazz Marathon where we listened to plenty of this......

...........drank plenty of this......

...giggled at this cheeky chappy (the Mannequin Pis) who apparently has a wardrobe of 800 outfits!...

.....then on Sunday we took the train to Bruges where we drank this.....

......ate these!!.......

.....took a ride on a motor boat on one of these.....

....and had a wander around the beautiful medieval Bruges town square.

We had an absolute blast!

Thanks for dropping by!

Heather xxx



Precious Godson.......

This card was another commissioned card, this time through the shop. Baby James is apparently the first baby to be born into his family for 30 YEARS!!! (Can you believe that?!) so the client wanted 'something special'. I had a card to hand that was more or less the same, showed it to her, and she said that it was just what she was looking for. She told me what she wanted the sentiment to say on the front of the card, and I suggested the 'Silver Cross' pram as the embellishment.

The card base is an A4 which was covered with baby script paper. A large, intricate frame was cut from white Bazzil and adhered to the card front with foam pads. The sentiment (apart from 'James') was computer generated onto white textured cardstock, then cut into an oval. 'James' was cut from blue shimmer cardstock and adhered above the sentiment. The completed oval was adhered to a scalloped oval and adhered over the aperture in the frame. The pram was cut from silver mirri card and blue shimmer cardstock and emebellished with a blue pearl heart. It was adhered below the sentiment with foam pads. A floral arrangement was adhered to the top of the oval. A sheer bow and a smattering of pearls completes the card.

Carts used:

Frame- Ornamental Iron 2

Scalloped oval- Elegant Edges

JAMES (individual letters)- Storybook

Pram- Mother's Day

Thanks for dropping by!

Heather xxx



Boing,boing,Baggies!!!!!!......

What the.......! I hear you say! Well. if you didn't already know 'Boing,Boing,Baggies!' is the battlecry, or terrace chant, of West Bromwich Albion football club. The recipient of this card is one of No.1 son's housemates, Nicky, who although she comes from Stoke-On-Trent is a West Brom fan. Krishnan called me and asked if I could make a card for her with a West Brom theme. So I went onto good old Google (images), found a West Brom club badge and the chant, and printed the badge onto textured cardstock. It was adhered with foam pads to a panel embossed with footballs in the centre of a standard C5 card. I kept the card simple with no patterned paper, just white and blue cardstock. Nicky, although terribly sweet, is not a very girly girl, but I added a piece of football print ribbon and a bow for a feminine touch. There's not a huge amount of Cricut stuff on here, just the sentiment and name, but heyho needs must and all that!

Nicky, I'm assured, was thrilled and No.1 son said I'd excelled myself!

Aw, shucks!!!

Carts used:

Sentiment & Name- Lyrical Letters (Jumbo font)

Thanks for dropping by!

Heather xxx



A Ritzy Lady.........

....Oh to have a figure like this fine gal! You couldn't have any 'back fat' in this frock could you? Seriously, this is one elegant cut. Her name is Sheba, and like all the figures in the cards that I'm featuring from the Art Deco cart, she was cut at 6 1/4" (although the handbook recommends 5") because that size gives a good clean cut. If you have a Create, put your machine to 'Portrait' mode otherwise they won't fit on the mat. Original Cricut owners will have to adjust the size according to their machine.

Sheba's dress was cut from pale pink glittercard and her gloves from silver paper. I added a lavolier (long dangly necklace) made from pearls.The card base is a tent fold DL and the papers are First Edition. I trimmed the central panel with punched silver mirri card, adding a bow to the bottom border and an aqua bloom and two peach flowers to the top border. The sentiment- Happy Birthday to a ritzy lady- was computer generated onto textured cardstock, then matted onto silver mirri and adhered to the card with foam pads. A smattering of pearls completes the card.

Cart used:

Sheba- Art Deco

Thanks for dropping by!

Heather xxx

Seren.......

....is what it should say on the front of this card! It was only after I had taken a photo of it, then checked the details that I realised I'd spelled the name wrong! Dufus!! So I had to redo the front! The card was a commission from my hubby's secretary Debbie. She ordered three A4 cards on the Friday and wanted them for the following Friday. No pressure then! I made all three cards on Sunday afternoon and my hubby took them into work on Monday. The only brief I had for this card was that the recipient was going to be 50 and liked horses. Looking through the obvious carts I couldn't find a horse that I liked until I looked in the Carousel Lite cart and found this lovely prancing horse. I cut it from white glittercard and backed the cutout areas with purple. I added some purple gems to the saddle and the tassels on the bridle. I covered the front of the card with purple paper and added a beautiful ornate panel cut from silver mirri card. The horse was adhered to the centre of the panel with foam pads. 'Seren' was cut from white glittercard and adhered to the card below the ornate panel. A sheer ribbon bow and single sheer ribbon bloom was adhered to the bottom of the card. A scalloped circle holding the '50' was adhered to the top of the card with foam pads. A smattering of bling completes the card.

Carts used:

Horse- Carousel Lite

Ornate panel/50/Seren- Ornamental Iron 2

Scalloped circle- Elegant Edges

Plain circle- George

Thanks for dropping by!

Heather xxx

You go Girlfriend!.......

Wow! What a difference a day makes! The weather here on the south coast is great today, blue sky, sun and a breeze. Ideal drying weather in fact. I've managed to put my washing out today without having to make a mad dash down the garden when the heavens open! And I've mowed the lawn too! If I'd left it another week it'd have been a veritable jungle. It's been so wet, if I'd done it sooner I'd have bunged up the mower. It'll probably be chucking it down tomorrow.

Well, as promised here is a card I made using the fab new Teen Scene Paper Doll cart. There are both girl and boy images on this cart, in several different poses. I love this sassy image. There is another image on the page with her wearing a long dress but I'll show you that one another time.  All of the dolls are created from 4 layers although you can leave out one layer ( for the whites of the eyes- I just adhered a scrap of white card behind the eyes as it seemed a waste of white cardstock to cut out a whole body). Then you just cut out the clothes, shoes and accessories and Bob's your uncle! A fab teen figure! For this sassy lady I used glittercard for the dress shoes and bag. I added a little blush to her cheeks with some chalk, then blinged her up. The card base is a standard DL and the papers are Christmas Me To You from last year- they were perfect for this card. I added a panel to the centre of the card, then adhered the finished figure to it with her feet along the bottom edge of the card. The sentiment- You go Girlfriend!- was computer-generated then adhered to a scalloped oval. I finished the card with a bow, single bloom and some extra bling.

Carts used:

Teen figure- Teen Scene Paper Doll

Scalloped oval- Elegant Edges

Thanks for dropping by!

Heather xxx

A Swell Gal!.......

I've got a couple of new carts people and OMG! They are THE BEST YET!!! I've been stalking on-line stores for the Art Deco and Teen Scene carts and at last I have them! The Art Deco cart is full of beautiful images for both men and women- or Guys and Gals!- and this is the first card that I made with it. I'm in love with this image! The walking lady and the dog are seperate cuts but I thought that they'd be great put together. The card is a standard C5 and the papers are First Edition. The colour palette is soft green, taupe and peach. Yummy! The lady was very easy to put together, and I added a few little bits like the trim around the bottom of her jacket and pocket, cut by hand, and a punched flower on her cloche hat. The dog was cut from two shades of grey cardstock, and a collar was cut from mirror card. I added green gems to the collar. The lead is a piece of fine silver cord which was adhered to the back of the dogs neck and the lady's hand. They are both adhered with foam pads to a shaped panel. The computer-generated sentiment - Happy Birthday to a swell gal!- was printed onto textured cardstock, then trimmed and matted. It was adhered to the card front with foam pads and embellished with a rose, and small peach-coloured flowers. A smattering of pearls completes the card.

Carts used:

Walking lady and greyhound- Art Deco

Shaped panel- Elegant Edges

I'll be back tomorrow with a Teen Scene card

Thanks for dropping by!

Heather xxx

What a difference a colour change makes!......

 I've got a couple of cards for you this evening to show you how a colour change can make all the difference on a card. I LOVE the dramatic black/aqua colour palette of this first card. Again I used the DCWV Street Lace 8x8 pad (it's almost all gone now! Boo Hoo!) The card base is a standard C5 covered with black textured cardstock. I added a smaller panel of patterned paper to the centre of the card, then a punched, ribbon-trimmed border to one side. A shaped panel was adhered with foam pads to the centre of the panel. It was topped with an embossed rectangle, then a beautiful oriental lady cut from black and white cardstock and patterned paper. The 'Beauty' sentiment was cut from black cardstock, trimmed (it's part of a sentiment panel) then matted onto aqua cardstock. A couple of punched flowers with pearls centres were added as embellishment. A satin bow and aqua bloom completes the card.

The pastel version is much softer and delicate. It was made in exactly the same  way with papers from the 'Hot Diggety Dog' A4 pack  by Andrea Jayne (from Dovecraft) and a scrap of paper from a 6x6 freebie pad (courtesy of a mag yonks ago) for the kimino. I added a little punched daisy to the lady's hair and a WOC Helibore, and flower printed sheer ribbon bow.

A smattering of pearls completes the card.

Carts used:

(For both cards)

Oriental Ladies- Pagoda

Word panels- Pagoda

Shaped panels- Elegant Edges

Thanks for dropping by and have a great (but very probably soggy!) Bank Holiday

See ya!

Heather xxx

Workshop Wednesday.......

 Welcome to another workshop Wednesday folks, and another fun day was had by all!... First up (above) is Angie.....

 ..then Jenny.....

 ....Lesley, with her cute Create A Critter puddy tat and mousey........

 ...Lucy, her first time at a Cricut Workshop. Didn't she do well?!.......

 ....Monica.....

 ......Sue........

.....and last but not least Vicky's skater birthday cards for a skating club.

Well done ladies, lovely cards as usual!

Thanks for dropping in today!

Heather xxx