My Hero

Ohhhh I had a couple of hours panic this morning when I switched on the pc and nothing happened!

Hubby's working from home and we were already talking new pc options - but he sneaked a few minutes away from his work to see if he could see what the problem was.
Bless his cotton socks!
What he found was a bit of memory he'd put in just because it was lying around had decided to break itself and then stop everything else working too. Once he'd taken it out, lo and behold a little pre-Christmas miracle happened and all started working again. I tell you, it was a big "PHEW!" moment. I'll be making the coffees all day today instead of us taking turns!

So anyway, I'm now rushing to catch up on the stuff I usually do on Friday mornings so this is a real quickie!

As usual it's DCM day and today it's Vanessa 's turn and she appears to be fed up with all the Christmas stuff - she wants no sign of Christmas or Winter on our cards this week - and she's gone a bit dotty too!

I thought we'd have a little break from all things Christmassy. So, for one week only over this festive period, we're having a no-Christmas and no-Winter zone! Its polka-dot week! Lets bring some warmth to our cards with polka dots, but I don't mean spots or dots in a variety of sizes, it has to be specifically polka-dots (i.e. a pattern of dots of equal size, equally spaced). However, you can have whatever colour(s) you choose as long as your card doesn't look cold and wintry!!

It's amazing how many polka dot bits and pieces I found in my stash - papers, buttons, ribbons and flowers - most of course not matching each other.


I've made another scrapling card - I really do like these little things they are such fun to make.
Both the polka dot papers I've used here are actually velvet papers which I'm hoping qualifies them for the "warmth" factor as the feel lovely. I didn't actually read the dare properly till after I'd made this so I'm clutching at straws a bit here. Mind you I wasn't the only one! lol

Polka dot flower and ribbon are from my stash. I didn't have a button to match so I dotted a plain one with liquid pearls - I know it's not perfect, but you can't have it all!

Right, got to get on with the next project!
Please don't forget to check the DCM BLOG today for some more hot dotty!
Thanks for looking

It was SEASON!!!!!!

Honestly, there are some grubby minds about, aren't there?

It never occurred to me when I posted the sneak peek yesterday that some of you would only manage to come up with an X as the next letter. If I'd thought about it though, I could have guessed which of you would assume that an S and an E could only be followed by an X.
Rude lot that you are!

As if.

So, a couple more letters for you and no doubt you'll think it's something to do with summer holidays now.....

Or maybe not!

The brand new kit from Bubbly Funk is made up of a veritable feast of goodies from Webster's Pages - not just Christmas ones either - it's a bumper kit to see us through into the new year so there are lots of non-Christmas papers in there too - plus all sorts of other bits and pieces to go with it, of course.

I knew there were going to be problems as soon as I opened my Kit Box last Friday. This stuff is seriously gorgeous and the only way I was going to manage to cut into those papers was that if at least the first thing I made would be staying here. With me.

Here's what I came up with


I bought this 8" square canvas on a rare visit to Hobbycraft a few weeks ago . I've never made a canvas before but this seemed the perfect opportunity to give it a go.
I'm really happy with the results and this will be going on the wall, or the mantlepiece once the decorations go up.

You can see how I made it on the Bubbly Scrumptious emag HERE I hope you like it.

Still trying to work my way through that old to-do list. Top of my crafty to-dos for today is my dcm card for tomorrow.
Hope you're getting through your lists too

Wow, it's WOYWW again already!

I remember bit quicker today about it being Wednesday and therefore WOYWW day, so have actually taken my photo on the right day.
Wednesday morning is usually when I write up my project for tomorrow's Bubbly Scrumptious. I try to get it done as quickly as I can so that I can get back to my craft desk, but sometimes it takes me longer and I don't get to craft at all. Today, I'm taking a quick break from the project writing (I'm nearly finished, anyway) to do a blog post.

Anyway that's a long-winded way of saying that what you see on my desk is how I left it yesterday. I've sneakily dumped a piece of red tissue paper over the last thing I was working on, but the bits and pieces I'm using are there. If you look between the rubbish pot and the glue pot you'll see a sneak peek of the other standing photo album I'm busy with too - just got the covers to do and it'll be ready to show.

I think it was Tracey who spotted the Glossy Accents in the rubbish pot - well, I don't actually use a whole pot every week, and I do empty the rubbish every few days - the GA bottle just tends to live in there because it's a convenient place to up-end it in the hope that it won't clog up. Sometimes it can be found in the pot of bulldog clips which is also always at hand.

I thought I'd add a second photo and open the drawer which is so full of just little scraps of ribbon and lace that I have to force it shut. The idea is that if it's near to hand I'm more likely to check the scraps before I cut into the longer lengths of ribbon. Sometimes it even works.
If you popped by last week you'll have seen that I was very proud of my newly tidied desk. as you can see, that didn't last long and it's all back to a more normal state this week.

Well.... I've got a lot on atm and keeping tidy is just not on the to-do list!

As some of those lovely people who left a comment yesterday said they liked seeing sneak peeks I thought I'd taunt/tempt you with another one! Can you hear my evil chortles yet?
Right, back to that other task. Or maybe I'll have some lunch first....

Catch you soon

Keeping Busy?

I bet you are!

me too - but I thought it was about time I did a quick update on here. The first photo is just a small glimpse of something I've made but can't share yet - I love the colours and couldn't resist adding a sneak peek on here
My niece asked me to make some standing photo albums for a couple of her friends - so that's what I've been trying to get done over the last few days, The first is finished and the second just needs the covers done so I'll be showing that on here soon.

Do you recognise the papers?
I bought a few more sheets of the papers that were in the Bubbly Funk September kit which was based around the MME Clourful Christmas paper collection. Most of the papers had at least one side which wasn't overtly Christmassy, and the colours and designs were so bright and cheerful that I thought they'd be perfect for this job - what do you think?
I love it when you can get a bit more mileage out of Christmas stuff!

SALE SALE SALE

One last thing - just in case you're not "in the know" Anice has updated the Funky Hand shop site and to celebrate getting it all done and on-line there's a SALE!
You can get 33% off all the Funky Hand CDs if you get your order in soon!

Right, now I need to go and re-take some photos I made a hash of before all the light has gone again.

Be back soon

Saying Thank You

If you follow the Daring Cardmakers you'll know that we've recently been lucky enough to recruit two wonderfully talented new designers to the team. On the DCM we all take a turn at coming up with a dare - we usually let our new teamies find their feet for a few weeks before asking them to step up to the mark and, a couple of weeks back it was "new girl" Paula who set our weekly challenge - remember the "Scraplings" one? I loved that, I've been saving my offcuts ever since to make more! Anyway, that left our other "new girl" Lynda perched on the hot bricks waiting for her turn - which has finally arrived.

Say it in "Sepia"

I've been sorting through some "Old" family photographs with the intention of Scrapbooking them and I just love the Sepia ones. So I thought it would be nice to see a "Thank You" card made using "sepia" tones. So that's just brown/white or brown/cream depending on your card base colour. . We will all be needing "Thank You" cards after Christmas so that's why I chose that sentiment just to help us all get started.

I really enjoyed making my card, Such a treat to indulge a love of flowers, ribbon and lace and make something frilly with an old-fashioned romantic feel!

It was also a jolly good excuse to make use of the new MS punch set that arrived a few days ago.

Supplies:
Various Distress Inks (Bubbly Funk)
Prima Artful Collage Flowers, large wired rose for centre
Scraps of ecru lace
Pearl beads
Satin Ribbon
Card Candy (Creative Treasures)
MS Punch set (Charmed Cards and Crafts)
Rub-on is one from the sheet I made a few weeks ago


This was a great way to jolt us out of all those Christmas colours we've been up to our eyes in for what seems like ever! And Lynda's right, we do need to start thinking about "Thank You" cards.
I know it won't happen, but it would be lovely to have some made and ready to send out straight after Christmas - I always get them done eventually, but usually not as quickly as I'd like.

Please pop over to the DCM BLOG and have a look at the lovely colour-coordinated cards we've made this week. We'd love you to join in with us and make some sepia cards for us to see - it would be wonderful if we had LOADS of cards to see this week, especially as it's Lynda's first dare and she's been worrying about it for weeks! lol lol.
In all seriousness - it's easy to forget how scary it is when you first set a dare, there's always the nagging feeling that everyone will hate it and you'll be the first person to set a challenge that no-one wants to join in with.

Well, I need to get back to my crafting "to-do" list. There's also the washing, ironing, cleaning, gift wrapping, card-writing etc etc.....butlet's not talk about that, eh?

Have a fab weekend

It's a Gift.....Bag. And a late (again)WOYWW

Yet again I'm late with my "What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday" But as an extra special treat I've got two photos to share and one will shock your little socks off!

First though, Thursday is my day over on the Bubbly Scrumptious emag. In case you don't already know, this is the e-zine for the Bubbly Funk SHOP and is stuffed full of ideas and projects using the monthly kits, mini-kits and lots of other things available from the shop.
I usually work with the monthly kits and this month's is based around the "Christmas Magic" collection from Fancy Pants. I absolutely adore it - muted red, green and blue shades are much more to my taste for Christmas projects than the brighter colours so this one is right up my alley.

This week I've made this little gift bag. It stands about 16cms high, is 10cms across and about 4cms deep, so a good size for a little pressie that might otherwise get lost amidst the chaos under the tree on Christmas morning!
All the instructions on how to make it are HERE and if you do have time for a browse - do go to the main page and check out what everyone else has been doing, Ruth, Sarah, Kaz, Linda, Caroline and I try really hard to make "bubscrump" an inspiring place to visit and there's something new to see every day of the week and something for the weekends too ;)


So, my LWOYWW. By the time I remembered what day it was lol, any daylight that we had yesterday had gone, so I took my photo this morning instead. If you really really want to see how much of a mess it's in, you can click on the image. Someone - I can't remember who it was, sorry, asked for a bigger picture - well that's just masochistic, but I have made this week's photos larger so if you really want to peer closer into the depths of my grime then you can
Something really strange happened after I took the photo. I had this weird urge to sweep away all the scraps, dust and mess and have a bit of a clear up. Shocking, I know,I'm sorry if that's left you feeling faint.
It wasn't the biggest tidy up in the world - oh no, that's going to happen when we have to clear out the study to let the builders in as we're having some internal insulation fitted (the house isn't ancient, but too old to have cavity walls) to this room as a bit of an experiment. The whole idea of clearing out my stuff brings me out in a rash and a panic, but I'm hoping to con some decent shelving out of the upheaval, at the moment it's all cast-off bookcases and plastic drawers that fall to bits as soon as you look at them.

So, what does my desk look like right at this very moment? It looks like this and you'd better look quickly because it won't last long
LOOK! you can see the wood (well the laminate!). I've corralled all the punches that were lying around the desk into one place just for Suzie (oops, that should be suSie, sorry hun! lol), and marshalled the Queues that I'd been using into a neat row - just for the photo. I've also tidied the stuff hanging from the hooks at the back and found stuff I didn't know I had. Oh, and I took the green mat downstairs and gave it a clean with my Lakeland steam mop - this has got to be my favourite Lakeland purchase ever! it certainly gets more use than the dreaded Fiskars Shapeboss I bought from them in a moment of madness. Mind you, I didn't actually buy the mop for crafting purposes - but it's amazing how just about anything can be pressed into use when a crafter gets their hands on it!
Right, I'm off to mess up my desk again now - I have two projects I must finish. Oh, and I should probably move all the stuff I dumped on the floor as I can't actually walk across the room atm......

Thanks for visiting, please leave a message, I do love to read them!

Deck the Halls....

Ooooh December has already made it's presence felt! We woke to the first frost of the Winter this morning brrrr It's lovely and sunny, but very chilly and on the shady side of the road the frost is still looking very white and sparkly.

The December challenge is now up on Funky Hand's Get Funky blog. It's set by Kath and is the first one I've been involved with, so all very exciting and just a tad scary - these girls are all sooooo inventive and inspirational - I just hope my project holds up alongside them all!

DECK THE HALLS
with boughs of holly....
fa..la la la la.....la la la

What I would like you to do this month is to create a Christmas decoration to decorate your wall...mantlepiece Christmas table or to hang on your tree.....a Christmas Gift or perhaps a box or gift wrapping

There's a great prize on offer - the winner will receive a £20 voucher to spend at

Funky Hand, the challenge runs till 31st Dec, so plenty of time to download your papers if you've not already got some, and join in. Click HERE for more info and to see all the fantastic projects my new Teamies have made to get you thinking!


I used papers from the Blue Christmas Download to make a little pillow box - I love these boxes, and now that I can use Mr Robo to cut them, they are even easier!

For this one I cut the template first in card and then in Anice's lovely tree design paper. I used the striped design to make some paper ribbon to wrap around the package. For the bow I printed off a couple of small pieces of two more of the designs, these were glued back to back as the bow shows both sides of the paper strips used to make it. I made some twirly bits with the scraps - well, it's good to use up as much as possible, isn't it?

For the matching tag I covered the little card with a couple more scraps of paper, light at the top, darker design at the bottom. I glued scraps of the box paper to card and cut out three of the trees, before sticking them to the card I tucked a couple of spare snowflakes (from the Festive fun digi stamps download) underneath. I'd had these left over from making the cards on the right a couple of weeks back - they were still lying around on my desk. So you see! there is a good side to never clearing up after yourself! lol
Well, that's my excuse and it's holding up for the moment anyway!
Not sure how long it will though as the mess is beginning to engulf me.

That's all for now, coffee to make and crafting to do - I really need to get on with something I started yesterday and didn't get very far with. It involved a bit of measuring and even some adding up and maths has never been my forté! Hopefully the next bit will be less stressful!

Thanks for popping by

Tick, tick tick

We did loads of Christmas-related shopping on Saturday. Funny though how you're always left with the same few "awkward ones" after everyone else is sorted, isn't it? Not helped when one of those "awkward ones" has a December birthday too.

Anyway, I'm feeling much calmer now about the whole she-bang than I was, which is good.

I've had a Wedding Anniversary card on order for months and have finally got round to making it - just as well as the anniversary is only about a week away.
It's really simple, but it took me ages to make - I knew I wanted to use the little hearts and then a larger one for the message tag - but then I couldn't decide what layout to use, I faffed about with all the punched hearts for ages, then realised that if I made the squares they sit on smaller it would all work out just right.
I've used silver card, then a piece of white embossed with the tiny hearts Cbug folder for the background.
The hearts are cut in black glitter card and mounted on red and silver squares.
The ric rac is a lovely dark red velvet stuff and the large black and red heart conceals the personal message from my customer to her hubby.

That all finished and ready to be packed up I thought I should get started on making some tags for our Christmas presents.
As we're having a gold/copper/bronze theme for the tree this year I thought Kraft type card and a sludgy home-spun look would work ok.


I used Mr Robo to cut these and managed to get all of these from one sheet of 12x12. There wasn't much left, I can tell you.

I decorated them mainly with scraps and leftovers that were lying about with the other Christmas stuff. My faves are the last lot - they took hardly any time to make and those little Cbug minis are just so cute!

That's all for now, hope you're getting on ok with your Christmas "to do" list.

Merry and White

I'm a bit late loading the card I've made for Jozza's dare on the Daring Cardmakers this week. Mainly because I started doing some Christmas shopping on Amazon, and got thoroughly bogged down in searching for stuff for everyone. I'm sure you know what it's like when you get lost among the "shelves" - sometimes I wonder if I'll ever find my way out.
However, it's got to be less of a hassle than traipsing around real shops at this time of the year - especially when you're not really sure what you're looking for!
Now, if only I could find my Christmas gift notebook things would be easier. Looks like I might need to make another one!

Still on the theme of Christmas I can move niftily and seamlessly into Jozza's dare for this week.

"I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas"

I want to see Christmas cards that are mainly white with just a hint of colouring on your embellishments or stamped image.

If you head over to the DCM BLOG you'll find a fab array of mainly white cards - we all moaned and griped about the difficulties we had photographing them, but it's lovely to see them altogether, they do look so pretty lined up like that.

Lots of embossing and layering and plenty of other pretty things came into play this week, texture really becomes the name of the game when you are limited to mainly white for a card. Mr Cuttlebug certainly earned his place on the crafting desk this week!

Here's the card I've made for this dare
I know the photo is rubbish, but trust me, this is the best of a bad lot - there are 19 other photos )I've just been and counted them) sitting in PSP - I tried different backgrounds, different angles and some even had some "props" in an attempt to go all posh and arty. In the end though, it was this one taken flat on the top of the bookcase that turned out the best. I really couldn't find the patience to try anything else!



I cut the baubles with Mr Robo, then embossed them with various CBug folders before layering them up a bit and adding some gold highlights. The card blank was embossed with the baubles folder. The ribbon on the lower edge is white, but has a pattern on the centre satin section and also has gold thread running through it, but that's not showing up at all. I made the "Merry and White" sentiment on the pc then cut it out with a Spellbinders die.
Basically this is just white card, some ribbon, a couple of brads and some gold thread. So why did it take sooooooo long to make? lol

White on white always looks impressive and delicate but is a mare to photograph - we hope that won't put you off having a go at our dare this week though!

Right, I have three choices of what to do now
1. make a coffee
2. make the anniversary card that I've had on order for months
3. do some more Christmas shopping.

hmmmm, I wonder.....

Thanks for popping by

Bubbly Funk and a Jaunt to the North

Did you miss me?
We've been up in Northumberland with my rellies for a little bit of R&R. It was lovely to spend some time with them and to be near the sea for a little while - nothing quite like a walk along the prom for blowing away those cobwebs!
We didn't take many photos this time, but I've got a couple to share in a minute. First though, it's Thursday and that means my turn to add something to the Bubbly Scrumptious EMAG. I did a couple of cards before I went away, using bits and pieces from the November "Christmas Magic" kit and just a couple of bits from my own stash.
These are fairly quick to make, and use a couple of the journalling cards, chipboard letters, and Stickers as well as using up some paper scraps I had saved from other projects













You can see more about how I made them HERE

I grew up in a seaside village - I've posted photos before, but here's another one, anyway! The Church on the point is where for hundreds of years most of my ancestors were baptised, married and buried.
My mum would meet me out of school on nice days and we'd go straight down to the beach. I spent hours with my Grandads and dad playing in the rockpools by the breakwater.

We had some lovely sunny weather - some rain too, but all things considered we did pretty well compared to a lot of the country, so decided to go up the coast and over the causeway to Lindisfarne (Holy Island).

You can't miss a garden centre visit at this time of year, can you? While we were up there we went to Heighley Gate GC and spent a small fortune, I might add!

I don't normally take photos of giant inflatable Father Christmases, but this year I've made an exception as this will be perfect for a page in my Christmas journal!

(Actually, to be honest - I made Hubby go and take the photo)

I promise I'll get around the blogs just as soon as I've caught up with the "to do" list - mind you, that could be sometime next Summer at the rate I'm going!