I'm In Simply Cards and Papercrafts!

Who-hoooo! My first time being published (in a magazine) and its a good job the pic of me is tiny as it is a very terrible one!

It's the current issue (77) of Simply Cards and Papercraft and I'm in the free Best of British booklet that comes with the magazine. Anice gave me the opportunity to write a little tutorial and to submit a card using the Funky Hand All I Want For Xmas download, and there it is in all it's glory!!

Happy Birthday & A Sale!

A very big Happy Birthday to Anice - owner and creator of everything Funky! And to celebrate her Birthday she is offering a substantial discount on anything for sale on her website!

A 41% discount will be applied at checkout if you use the code 41TODAY - this is only available until 26 November so get your skates on and pop over to Funky Hand and get your orders in - consider it a pre-Christmas treat!!

Pink Cat & Spotty Paper

This is a new challenge for me which I found whilst blog hopping - Sketch Saturday - and here is the sketch:


I've flipped it round as I really wanted to use the Inka image (sent to me by Anice in a recent Funky Hand DT image swop!) I've coloured it with watercolour pencils to match the paper (I think is Naughty but Nice Christmas paper from Dovecraft) and the ribbons and buttons.

And I know that cats aren't really that colour, but its nice to have a change every now and again!

The buttons I made from fimo and pushed seed beads in before they were baked - the ribbons were tied through the holes for extra detail. Not too sure why the doodled line looks wonky on the photo - it isn't in real life!

• Backing paper: Naughty But Nice Christmas papers by Dovecraft
• Image: Inka stamps, coloured with watercolour pencils
• Ribbons: From my stash
• Buttons: Made by me
  

Funky Hand Is A Winner!

Funky Hand has won North Tynesides Retail Business of the Year 2009! The award ceremony was last night and Anice and Ian won! And here is a very happy Anice with her award! Photo lifted from her website hehehe! For more photos and happiness pop over to Anice's blog.

And I know it sounds really naff, but Anice is honestly fantastic to work with, gives lots of praise, encouragement and is very thoughtful. Plus her designs are so easy to work with and inspiring and I am so proud to be part of her Design Team! Ian weaves his magic with the technical aspect of Funky Hand - making sure the website looks stunning and that the downloads, well, download! So, if you've not seen Funky Hand before (I'm a prolific user!) then go and visit the website! You'll not be disappointed!

Well done Anice and Ian!

Spring Has Sprung - Simply!

The Secret Crafter challenge this week is:

Spring Has Sprung!

So, I got out my left over papers to see what yellows I had, and I found these - all I think are from It's Funky Too. So after a bit of faffing around with layering and when I was happy with what I had, I doodled a running stitch around the edges of the card and papers. The image is one sent to me by Anice as we did a Funky Hand DT image swop and its been coloured with watercolour pencils. I've slightly inked the edge of the image with a running out black ink pad and the wide grosgrain ribbon is from my stash.

Yeah, and the lighting is the halogen kitchen lights again....

• Backing papers: It's Funky Too
• Image: Anita's Stamps and from Anice
• Ribbon: From my stash (originally Blackburn market)
  
  

It's A Pink Elephant (Challenge)!

This is a brand new Challenge site called The Pink Elephant! So how could I resist with a title like that (and Funky Hand DT mate Carol is also on the Pink Elephant DT!)

Their first challenge is a colour challenge:

Pink, Black and White

I raided my left-over box to see what I could find - so the papers are the unknown download (Mily Designs) which I have cleverly (ha!) managed to piece together to fit the card blank and then by a stroke of genius, have added ribbon but just the one sided bow as I again cut the ribbon too short.... Doh!

The image is from Anice and our recent Funky Hand DT image swop and is a Hero Arts stamp which I have picked out some of the features using a glitter gel pen. Not that you can see the glitter, but there is a tiny bit on it. Somewhere. Everything has been inked and rounded and the brads are from my stash.

I wanted to keep the card simple and I really do quite like it!

• Backing paper: Mily Designs (but don't know where I downloaded it from!)
• Image: From Anice - Hero Arts
• Ribbon and Brads: My stash
  
  

Funky Daze Gift Box - It's Not A Card!

Sometimes when I see a challenge I know exactly what I'm going to make, right down to the smallest detail. And then sometimes I've not got a clue and it takes me a few days of thinking to work it all out. This was the former - I knew straight away!

For the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge, it was to:

Make anything but A CARD!

So I made a gift bag! It was based upon this tutorial! I printed the card on both sides so the inside of the box is interesting too! Also, the flowers have been cut from double sided printed card - all from Funky Daze from Funky Hand.

I've used some wavy scissors (well, the scissors are not wavy, they just cut a wavy line!) to shape the top and used my eyelet setter to make the holes for the ribbon.

I've inked the edges of the flowers with either blue ink (tiny freebie ink pad) or Chestnut Whispers, pinched the petals together, glued the centres and then added tiny centres also cut from the same backing paper. I told you that you'd see more of the Cuttlebug flowers!

I'm sending this gift bag to Anice as she is on telly on 27 January with a live premier of Funky Daze (further details in my sidebar) so if its shown you can say you saw it here first!

• Backing paper: Funky Daze from Funky Hand
• Template: Mine - tutorial here
• Ribbon: From my stash
• Dies: Cuttlebug Flowers
  

Anice, Funky Daze and Being 40

Here is the card I made for Anice for her Birthday. It was a special number, so special card was called for a special person! On the new cd - Funky Daze there are word books. Basically you print off the letters you want, put them together so that the letters show and bind together. I love the idea of word books but sort of did my own thing....

All the papers shown are from the Saturday Shopping collection, which, I must say, is my favourite, especially the swirly one. So I've used it liberally on this card!

I've used word art on word to create the numbers which I have cut by hand and embellished with gems and green ric rac ribbon. I found a fab pen in Asda which went well with the colour scheme, so decided to add it to the front of the card!

I nicked the photos of Anice from her blog! Handwritten sentiment and I've used my fancy scissors for the edging.

And Anice is a fan of Twitter, so I devoted a page to it! Made up some quotes which then had vellum overlaid to give a bit of depth. And it just so happened, there are 'tweet' papers on the CD - how apt!!

The back page has quite a bit 'going on'. There is Funky Towers, or at least how I think it looks (the photo doesn't show it too well as its cut from very shiny silver card) I made a tv with Anice 'appearing' on it. I gave Anice a very glittery and glam green dress and matching shoes! The tv opens to reveal Anice....

... holding a pair of scissors, cutting some paper and in the other hand holding a selection of Saturday Shopping papers.

And you can see what is on tv - either Funky Hand or Ideal World (as she's on there from time to time and will be again in the near future!) I made a little holder for the sign which is not in use (they stick with Velcro)

To keep the pages together, I've used eyelets and then threaded some funky black fibres through to tie them together.

Happy Birthday Anice and thank you for such wonderful papers!

Prior warning - you'll be seeing more of Saturday Shopping as I love it!! The papers that is, not actually shopping on a Saturday as its too busy....!

Funky Daze is Launched & Happy Birthday Anice!

A big Happy Birthday to Anice the creator of Funky Hand and the Design Team boss! Hope you have a lovely day - the sun is shining and its a crisp morning - perfect!!


I can now reveal some examples that I made in preparation for the launch of Funky Daze - which coincides with Anice's Birthday. Funky Daze is the seventh cd in her collection (geddit - Daze - Days?!! Clever eh?!) The other cds are The Funky One, It's Funky Too, Yule Be Funky, Funky Seasons, V Funky, Now That's Funky and now Funky Daze. All with fantastic paper collections with co-ordinating alphabets, digital ribbons, sentiments and backing shapes. Funky Daze has scrapbook pages within the extras.


All the papers are from Funky Daze with added embellishments. This first one is Ruby Tuesday with added lime green ric rac ribbon and a slightly glittery gold star.





This one has used Son Day papers and I've used the backing tags from my Cuttlebug Baby Face alphabet set and have attached them with eyelets. The buttons and ribbon are from my stash. All edges have been lightly inked with Chestnut Whispers.



The Saturday Shopping collection is probably my most favourite and I've used it a few times already - more examples to be revealed later in the week in detail but you can get an idea if you look in the gallery for the cd on the Funky Hand website. The card below uses 3 of the papers plus some pale pink vellum and ribbon. The fastener is Queen & Co - I finally broke the seal on the little pot after looking at them for quite a while! The handbag is a Sizzix die and the handbag opens.

DIY Dad uses wire from my stash and some tiny screws and washers that I got when I went to Sams Scrap Store a while ago. The vellum has been Swiss Dot embossed and the paper is from Fun Daze. Letter stamps are Studio G mini wooden alphabet and I've used Whispers Chestnut ink.

And I can't remember which collection this one is from! The clear vellum has been Swiss Dot embossed and I've lightly rubbed Chestnut ink across the top for a bit of a distressed look. Ribbon from my stash along with the gems.

This was a really quick card to make and I think I'll be using this design again in the future!

So you see, I have been busy! I have more examples to show you but will do those on another day!

There are some fantastic card examples by the design team on the website - and I hope they inspire you!

Kids & Their Social Lives

September was a busy month for birthdays, and it appears that November is following a very similar pattern! It's not that I don't have a social life, (well, I don't really, just very now and again as most of it is a virtual one) but the boys seem to be more popular than me!

Saturday morning was swimming lessons for Samuel, back home by 10:20. Quickly pick up Jacob and present and off to Anya's Birthday Party (I can't quite believe that Lynsey took a photo of Jacob not pulling a cheesy grin!) I was organised for this one as I made the card last month.

Then it was back home for a quick sit down and for me to complete the next Birthday card. I'd asked Samuel what L liked and he said 'Star Wars'. So we bought him Star Wars - The Clone Wars stuff and I made this card:

It is supposed to be Anekin Skywalker but the colours in the sticker book were a bit suspect so I think my colours may be a little wrong..

So then back out for another party (just Samuel this time) at 2:30. Needless to say that both boys were shattered by the end of the day! Jacob actually fell asleep on the settee clutching the contents of his party bag!

Although I did a lot of running around on Saturday, the day was not a complete crafting waste as I managed to do a bit of retail craft therapy at the Craft Range in Burnley where I managed to loose an hour and £25! Bought some fab stamps for boy cards which were in the reduced to clear section.

And the other Birthdays in November: Kath, Allison, Enfys, Anice and 3 family birthdays too.... no rest for the wicked!