Wooohooo! Featured on Cuteable!

Today has been a bit pants. Had a quick look on Cuteable earlier and to my great surprise I was featured!!! Well, my Dad's Birthday card was (I'm not cute!)

So thank you Cuteable!! And thank you Lynsey! Go and have a look on Cuteable if you've not already visited before - treasure trove of cute things that you would love to have!!!

It made my day!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Now I know I get plenty of warning for Birthdays as they are once a year, but for some reason I always leave making cards for my own family and friends until the last moment. However, I have an excuse this year! Had quite a few orders for commissioned cards to get through plus to make some samples for Anice for her forthcoming TV appearance (more of that to come!) and also trying to get sufficient Fathers Day cards made (15 June).

Anyway, had a bit of a play with some papers from Now That's Funky plus the stars had 'fallen' into my basket when visiting The Range on Friday and needed to use them (justification and all that!) The sentiment is from a bag of die cuts that I found in the bottomless box of craft bits that I have.
Happy Birthday Dad!

Errrm, I got an award!

Thanks to Daisie for this! As I am still very new to this blogging lark, I'm not over sure what I'm should be doing, but I know that I need to nominate some blogs to keep the thing going.... But, there are so many of these around (I know this as a read a lot of blogs!) and I suppose they are a bit like chain letters, so, I'll do it a bit differently!

These are the blogs I love to read - inspiring, individual and funny.

Swirlyarts, Saysie, Funky Hand, IncyWincy, Ethel & Edna, Lazy Trout and Shaz

So ladies, don't feel that you have nominate!

Excellent blog eh?!!

Busy Bees Thank You

This is a bright card - be warned! I was asked by Pam, the interim Manager at my boys' nursery to make a thank you card that she could give the staff when she leaves. She said I could do what ever I wanted.....

As its a Busy Bees nursery, I decided to add some glittery bees and the little person does look like Pam (I tested it out on my eldest and he said it was her, so good enough for me!) The lettering is Baby Face font from Cuttlebug - the left over letters have been used inside the card to also spell out 'thank you'. Bright yellow card from a big bag courtesy of Swirly!

St George's Day Knights

As its St George's Day today here are my knights in shining armour toppers! Available on my website (under Sizzix People).


Happy St George's Day!

Do the Funky Cheeky Chicken!

This is all about chickens. Fabric chicken doorstops. Made by the Crafts Forum very own Swirlyarts! Not much narrative needed - the pictures speak for themselves! Visit her Etsy shop and buy, buy, buy! The spotty one is called (wait for it..) chicken pox.....!

And this one is MINE!!! It was a 'wooops' chicken, so named because it went a little wrong in it's production - the comb is on upside down and it has a big beak... But I love it and it sits in my kitchen and looks at me when I'm on the pc!

Two of my family have Chicken Doorstops and a friend has a Chicken Paperweight (just a smaller version) as she used to keep chickens until they built a big extention - the chickens became homeless - so I got her a paperweight one instead! Less mess and feeding me thinks!

Policeman and Air Stewardess Wedding Card

Sarah (Hopej) from the Crafts Forum asked me to make a Wedding card for some friends, but wanted the little characters dressed as their day jobs rather than traditional Bride and Groom. Had great fun making this! Can you guess which airline the Bride works for?


Hope they like it!

No rest for the wicked!

Had quite a productive weekend! In between swimming lessons, parties and yellow belt Karate gradings! That's the boys - not me!

Despite having ideas for Funky Hand cards and really needing to turn them into reality, I'm trying to get some commissions completed so I won't feel guilty. I've got two cards currently on the go, so no pictures of them yet as I prefer to share when completed. But I have made the following this weekend:

The celebration bottle is for a male - fortunately I had some fab black and white stripy grosgrain ribbon so it doesn't look too girly!

And also made 24 of these:

18th Birthday Party Invitations for my hairdressers son. He's into rock climbing and they wanted something to reflect that. Also done all the wording inside - which is attached as an insert in the same font as the sentiment on the front.

Gee-Gee's & My Winnings!

It's only once a year I have a flutter on the horses when its Grand National Time. There was a virtual sweepstake on the Crafts Forum by Incywincy. And I picked the winner - Comply or Die! So here is my winnings! Thank you Incywincy!

Got some ideas for cards - and not used felt before on my cards, so looking forward to getting a chance to create!

I also had a money bet too and my horse came third - so got £5! Result!!

Funky Hand Design Team - attempt #1

My first attempt at a card using Now That's Funky backing papers from Funky Hand as part of the design team. Desperately trying to get all the commissioned cards completed so I can have a good faff with the backing papers as I have some ideas which are just screaming to be made!!


Added wide organza ribbon down the side (it was wired but I took out the wire), added seed beads to the corners, they were also added to the numbers and threaded onto fine wire and wrapped around the knot in the ribbon. All backing paper elements, including the numbers and disc are from the Now That's Funky cd.

Using up the Green Ribbon - New House

Bought 22 yards of mint green 1.5inch wide organza ribbon a while ago. Actually, I bought two. Was to be used for some Engagement Invitations / Announcements but eventually wasn't used in the end as they went for a different design. So I have now got two reels of the stuff to use up! It was a bargain - approx £4 a roll (inlcuding p&p from the US) so it's not an expensive disaster!






So, what can I use it for? A neighbour had just moved house and I wanted to send them a New House card.... bit of thinking later, and this is what I came up with! The ribbon sort of represents the grass.

Again, available to buy!

New Pad

See how good I am at attempting to use up all my bits and bobs? Thing is, it will take me a month of Sundays to use the lot - I think the box is like a Tardis and I always find something in there that I've forgotton I had......

Anyway. New Pad cards! Hand cut and chalked lilly pad, cuttlebug daisies (I think they are the asterix dies) folded in half to sort of resemble a lilly. Sizzix frogs in dark green and pale green and also chalked. Backgrounds from FunkyHand ATC's backing paper cd's (I printed that many off for the Dino-Sore cards I had to use them on another project!)

Available to buy in my little shop!

It's Freddie!

Made specially for a Queen fan who also likes cars! Tried to do a bit of a retro 80's theme!

The little Freddie Mercury figure will be a new product for May on my website. He actually has chest hair (chalked!)

What do you think?

Dino Sore!!

Every now and again I decide to 'try' and have a clear out of all the bits and bobs I have in my BIG cardboard box. It's usually die cuts that have taken my fancy over the past few years whilst I've been making cards - mainly bought through ebay. Anyway, I bought these dinosaur die cuts yonks ago not knowing what to do with them.

And a few weeks inspiration sort of hit me. And these are the result! Feeling a little dino-sore!! Real bandages and masking tape for a plaster. Google wobbly eyes and I've used blending chalks for a bit of definition. I just cannot use the little applicator thing you get with the chalks - it goes right through me! So I use cotton buds and I think I get a better finish with them!

Backgrounds are from FunkyHand (where else?!) and they are made up of two of the ATC sized backgrounds but added so that the pattern runs into the middle, if you see what I mean! Had lots of fun trying to decide which backgrounds to use - just had to print load off so I was sure hehehe!

Posted the pic of the cards on the Crafts Forum and got loads of really nice comments back - thank you!

Anyway, they are also available to buy from my TipTopToppers website.

Thanks!

Well, its not often I get stuck for words, but I am at the moment!

Thanks for all your lovely comments about me joining the FunkyHand design team. I really appreciate you taking the time to leave such lovely comments!

And JBJB, I'd have to think twice about standing in for Anice on TV - I've got a broad Lancashire accent and have the tendency to not always think about what I'm saying. So I could go off at a tangent or swear!! Not that I would dare swear as my mum would kill me!! But if it meant me having a manicure (never ever had one!) then I'd seriously consider it!!

Promise I'll share some of my current 'things' with you this week - just finding my way around this blogging lark!

Some very good news!

Got some very good news yesterday! I am now part of the Funky Hand Design Team! How fab is that?!! The announcement has been made on Anice's blog so its all official and I've not dreamt it!




And as this is my first ever post and I've not yet worked out how to insert images - I will be back as I have some pictures to share of cards I have recently been commissioned to make.

Or if you can't wait - have a look at my Commissions Gallery on my website www.tiptoptoppers.co.uk