Cardmaker of the Month

We have our first Card Maker of the Month from our newly introduced sketch challenges - Janet Dunn. I loved Janet's seasonal interpretation of the sketch. Janet won a £10 gift voucher.

To be honest it was really tough choosing a winner as they were all great! Great work girls xx

3 C's Design Team

Can't believe it almost Christmas again. Is it just me or does the months seem to just fly by? It simply doesn't seem a whole year since we had Christmas last! Well apparently it is happening again so I guess I have to go with the flow. I have not sent out a single Christmas card as yet; you know that horrible sinking feeling you get when you know you have to do something that should have been done yesterday but still you can't seem to find the time to do it? I walk around with that feeling most of the time at the moment. Have I got all the presents? Did I buy enough for X, Y and Z? Time's running out and the goose is getting plucked (poor thing).

Anyway, enough of that, let's move onto my exciting news. The Charmed Cards & Crafts Design team is finally formed. I think we have the best team and I just couldn't be happier with my members: Louise Brigden, Caroline Scattergood, Karen Leahy and Tracie Hudson. Four super talented ladies with creativity oozing out of every pore! I feel very lucky to have the girls onboard. Lou has kicked off with some fantastic cards using the K&Co Wild Saffron and Margo Collections. You can see a little snippet below, click on the image to be taken to the DT gallery.

Card Sketch Challenge #1

I have decided to have monthly sketch challenges for Charmed Cards & Crafts. One entry will have their card featured on our site as our card maker of the month plus receive a £10 voucher for the shop (UK only). Here is the first sketch, you can see an example in my post below:

I want to see the following please:

• Ribbon


• Chipboard

All entries will feature in our gallery on Charmed Craft Talk. You can email the entries to the email address on our site's contact page.

Hellloooooooo

Crikey it's been some time since I last blogged. Been unwell for over a month with a nasty bug so didn't have the energy to do anything other than what HAD to be done!

Anyway, here are some cards I made with the wonderful Wild Saffron Collection from K&Co. LOVE IT!

The butterflies are actually glittery as you can see on the next picture.

Double Tag

I've got a couple of tags I have neglected to deal with so I'll do them here at the same time.

First tag is a lovely smile award from Mellie, thank you Mellie :o)
I have to display the graphic and forward the award to 10 deserving blogs. The former is fine, the latter is HARD!

Recipients will be posted after some thought.

The second tag is from Juliet, thank you Juliet :o) I have to answer the following questions and tag 5 people.

Question 1- If you could have 100.00 pounds worth of scrapbook paper or assorted embellishments,which would you choose?

Embellishments probably.

Question 2- If you had to choose between using only stamps or rubons which would you choose?

Probably stamps as rub-ons are single use only.

Question 3 - If you knew how to do both awesome cards and layouts ,but could only do one for a year which would you do?

One layout and one card for a year? That's a bit mean isn't it? Oh one TYPE! ;oÞ I would choose cards as I need to make them for people I lurveeeee.

Question 4- would you rather own a scrapbooking store or have your own scrapping room at home (cant have both,lol,) ?

Well I do have both so what's ya gonna do about it huh???

Question 5 - and last but not least ,what is your current cardmaking or scrapping style?

I tend to change my style as the project dictates. I really love grungy but also do pretty ( although I'm not really into anything too pretty pretty) and traditional. No set style then really. An important aspect of both cardmaking and scrapping is versatility I think.

I'll come back with the five "taggies" when I'm a little better.

.......and CUT

That is the new challenge at Daring Card Makers - and here is my effort. Hand cut flowers.

DESIGN TEAM CALL...

********* DESIGN TEAM CALL ************ DESIGN TEAM CALL ********* DESIGN TEAM CALL ********

I have decided to put together a small design team. Click here for more info if you would like to be considered.

Happy Halloween

It doesn't seem a year ago that I took the girls out trick or treating! It's a sign of old age you know when the years go by quickly, either that or a sign that you lead a humdrum boring life where every week is like another!

Anyway, the girls have decided the don't want to go out this year. I am so going to miss that round, it was one of the highlights of the year! What is better than a couple of hours walking from door to door in the freezing cold? But we always miss most of the callers because we are out there ourselves so this year the girls decided that they want to be at home to greet callers with spooky faces and lots of sweets. We have decorated the hall with unimaginable horrors and will be doing the same outside before tonight.

As they are not getting their "treats" I have of course compiled a selection for them. To go with the goodie bags I made this card for them.

K&Co Light Ideas Halloween. Quickutz Silhouette Haunted House, Karen Foster Halloween paper, and black and green Bazzill. Fibre is Basic Grey Mellow, ribbon is Doodlebug Ric Rac. Eyelets from We R Memory Keepers. I think that's it.

Popcorn!

I had an order in from Lush (the makers of the most lucious bath products) and instead of the normal void fill packaging they used popcorn! What a fantastic idea! I always use environmentally friendly void fill but this really is the ultimate! Not sure how cost friendly it is though and I had noticed that the actual product prices had increased quite dramatically since my last order, so this is obviously where they recoup the costs, but certainly to be applauded in terms of "making a difference".

Moving swiftly from popcorn to Daring Card Makers. There's a little mini challenge there so I decided to have a go. This was the challenge:

The ingredients you need to use on your cards are:
4 brads/eyelets
3 circles
2 rectangles
and lashings of ribbon!

Oh crap! Just seen it says 4 brads/eyelets, I only used 3. Oh well, I made up for it by using 4 circles instead of three. ;o)

Extra Hour in Bed...

Well that didn't happen for me. I have the most annoying cough going and finding it hard to breathe when I lay down, so I got up early. But the extra hour is still there of course so I decided to make another Christmas card.

This one is kinda cute I think :o)

Figgy Pudding....

I am loving the new Basic Grey Figgy Pudding range, but then Basic Grey can do no wrong in my eyes. I have to try and keep up with my forum girls so when I saw that they had created new cards for the new DCM challenge I had a perfect excuse to get out the Figgy Pud! The challenge was called "Wrap it in Ribbon for Christmas"

Large A5 size, Figgy Paper, Chippie Tree covered in the reverse of the Figgy paper, Joy Bauble and flourish cut on Silhouette.

Another Challenge

A sketch challenge from DCM - here is the sketch:

... and here is my interpretation:

Basic Grey Figgy Pudding papers and Holiday Stickers (Reindeer).

Daring Cardmakers

A couple of my forum girls are always making cards for the Daring Cardmakers Challenges. I thought I would join in this time. The challenge was "Circle of Friends", with at least one circle. I made this card as I wanted to send something like it to a friend who I have lost touch with. I do miss seeing her and our chats on the phone, it's too easy to get caught up in family life and lose touch with people you once cared for.




I

Making room for a piano...

...is not easy task! But it is one that somehow has presented itself to me! Although not exactly a grand piano it is a sizable beast and it's proving a difficult task.

The girls have started piano lesson and need to be able to practise of course. So I have ordered them a digital piano (half price so quite a bargain). I ordered in haste and have spent much time measuring various gaps to find a home (should have measured first then ordered to suit!). The past two hours have been spent moving things around and I think we finally have a home for it. Now of course I am sooo looking forward to the arguments about whose turn it is to practise. I wonder if my local hypermarket sell ear plugs!

Had time to make a card though. I love the DCWV Once papers and used a couple here. Round shape and flourish cut on my Silhouette. Basic Grey Urban Couture ribbon.

Another Tag..

Thank you Jay for nominating me LOL. Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs

1. Done that

2. Seven Random facts:

1. Pears give me terrible wind
2. I had rheumatic fever when I was 14 and spent many months in hospital
3. I tend to dissect food. When eating a Big Mac for example I'll eat the edge of the top bun first then the inside middle of the top bun and then the rest of it. After that I'll nibble the edge of the burger and carefully munch my way around as the burger get smaller and smaller.
4. I never wear socks and walk barefooted indoors.
5. I'm a capricorn and have many of the common traits
6. I'm a terrible hoarder and hate to get rid of anything
7. I love laying on the sofa, watching a film whilst munching a huge bar of Whole Nuts.

Now for my chosen seven. That's the toughest part really as I'm not really into the blogging scene. I'll have to come back to that.

That was blimming tough, but here are my chosen seven (in no particular order):

Caroline (laid yourself WIDE open when you posted the comment lol)
Pinky
Lorraine
Sam
Mel & Jill
Cheryl
Mellie

Now I'm off to alert them all!

Love Struck....

Just wanted to make a quick card for Juliet's challenge. The requirement was to include a love heart, and I think I've done that here. The edge was meant to look like a heartbeat but ended up looking more like nan's lace doily - it's been a long day..........!


It does look much better IRL but I can't put the flash directly on it because of all the silver. We R Memory Keepers Silver Lining "Sateen" paper.

Been a while...

I'm slacking again! My posts are getting more and more infrequent but then again only 2 or 3 people actually read this blog so I'm not dissapointing the masses ;o)

I am considering scrapping the competitions at Charmed and instead have card challenges with a monthly "card maker of the month", these seem to be very popular at the moment and it may spur people on to use things they perhaps wouldn't normally consider. We shall see.

I'm already in a Christmassy kind of mood, and here are some cards I made yesterday.

This first one has a cosy feel to it I think. It reminds me of fragrant Christmas garlands and mulled wine. Chipboard frame painted green, red and gold, with large gold eyelets. BG Mellow fibres loosely wrapped and threaded, BG Dasher paper, Christmas presents border with K&Co Peppertwist Twist adhesions. Peppermint Twist Ornament alphabet "Noel". Gold flourishes inside made with Gold Glamour Dust.

The second one uses paper from the 8x8 Dovecraft Blue Christmas paper pack. Extra trees were cut out and mounted on foam pads then onto acetate. BG Periphery letters for the title. Large star is a Chippie chipboard star decorated with Glistening Snow then glitter.

I really like this one, it looks stunning in real life. Large chipboard snowflake (chippies) with Glistening Snow Writer (DecoArt) and clear Glamour dust on paper from the same pack as before. Fibre from BG Mellow (soooo versatile!). Large Dovecraft Funky Brad in the centre (i just lurveee those brads!).


The final card is a fun card with extra Christmas sparkle. BG Dasher papers, green velvet ribbon, Santa and tree from K&Co Peppermint collection. BG lettering. Glistening Snow applied around the edge.

That's my Christmas fix for a little while - until Figgy Pudding arrives of course, YUM!!

She's back!!!

My baby is back safe and sound from her school holiday!! Oh how we have missed her! The house has been so quiet and remarkably tidy!! The girls always blame each other for the mess, well now I know who the culprit is!

Aimee had a fabulous time of course and returned with a huge list of activities she had done - good job I wasn't there as I probably wouldn't have allowed half of them! One thing she didn't come back with was her underwear, BECAUSE I DIDN'T GIVE HER ANY!!!! We had initially packed everything in a small case, realised that was too small then re-packed in a larger case. Problem was that Aimee insisted she wanted to do that and she hadn't noticed the underwear I had packed into a side compartment in the bag! Can you believe it? I feel such a bad mummy! Thankfully her best friend had spares so she managed to borrow some, but she had to make do with three pairs for the week (and if you knew Aimee you would know how she would have felt about that!!).

She looked so tired when she returned and fell asleep very early last night on the sofa, bless. Boy, it's good to her her back!!

Here's a picture of when she left.

Masculine Cards

Bit difficult those guys aren't they, and they take that right into card making. It's no coincidence that you rarely see masculine cards in card idea sections, and if you do then they usually have a car, fishing rod, football or boat somewhere. Here's one I made today. It's a digital/normal hybrid and I'm really pleased with it. Not a card, boat, football or fishing rod in sight :o)

Maya Road Velvet Rick Rack, Basic Grey Papers, Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Hot Off The Press Grey Big Brads and Rub-Ons.

Tagged....

Thank you Lou for tagging me LOL This means I have to put my thinking cap on; after a hard weeks work that aint no easy task!

4 places I have worked:
Austin Reed, Regents Street in London's west end for two years. Posh mens wear shop so got to fiddle with loads of masculine bods!
Haseltine Primary School, Sydenham London. Special Needs for two years. This was a tough job and so heart breaking. I worked with children who had been abused in one way or another.
My luverly gorgeous shop that I had for several years. I sold lots of unusual cards, dried flowers, gifts and lots more. It's was fabarooney!
Owner of Charmed Cards & Crafts (current). Probably the hardest I have ever worked!

4 Places I have lived:
Struer, Denmark (where I am from)
Stockport, Manchester (for 6 months when I first came to England at 17)
London
No other places

4 Places I have visited:
Countries other than Denmark and England I assume, so
France,
Corfu (for several months - heaven!)
Italy
Germany

4 Favourite Foods:
Bøf med løg (work that one out)
Roast beef or pork ( can't beat a good Sunday roast!)
Anything with cream, from whipped cream to creamy sauces. I just lurve cream (my hips hate it unfortunately)
Freshly baked bread with Lurpak butter (my hips will disagree on this one also).

4 Places I would rather be:
Denmark, sitting with my brother having one of our cosy chats
Denmark eating lots of lovely food
Denmark walking round all the familiar places
Denmark

Now for the difficult part. I have to tag four people. As I'm not a great reader of blogs that's going to be tough.

These are my chosen ones (sorry guys HA HA HA):

Caroline
Roz
Julie
Tracie

School Journeys

I remember our school journeys as a child and what fun they were. The excitement and anticipation was quite wonderful. However, when the shoe is on the other foot it's not so great. This situation is now presenting itself to me and I now see it from the other side of the coin - the side that has no excitement, that's replaced with dread, and the only anticipation is nervous jitters! Yep, my baby is going on her first school journey!

But hello! Is it any wonder I worry? When we went on our school journeys we had organised SAFE trips, cycle rides and lots of swimming, now it's abseiling, rock climbing and something quite horrendous called "night line"!! The fact that they need two sets of old clothes that could be left behind for this latter activity does nothing to abate my fears!! ... and "old clothes"??? The girls have no "old clothes", we get rid of those when they grow out of them!! So then what? We have to buy two sets of clothes that can be used as "old clothes"! A trip to Primart then for some cheap sh*te!

Then there's the list of clothing, lots of this that and the other, but they can only take a small bag to put it all in!! Have to have a word with Doctor Who then and see if he has any ideas! Not sure if they do a tardis in bag size!!

I've spent a small fortune on lots of new clothes for Aimee, because it's going to be cold and I haven't really started on their winter wardrobe yet. Have you ever tried to find a waterproof coat for a 10 year old? It's nar on impossible!! They stop making them after the age of 5! So instead I bought an expensive ski jacket that is all weatherproof! If she leaves that behind I'll have a stroke!

Also on the list it says that they can bring sweets - boiled sweets only! So I'll expect Aimee back with several cracked teeth and visible decay shall I? No way am I allowing that! Was this list put together by a man per chance? Certainly no mother would be so stoopid!

Anyway, Aimee is going on Monday and will be back Friday night. I am absolutely dreading it but I am certain she will have a wonderful time.

To cheer me up a little I made another Christmas card. I love the Dolly Mama stamps! It's difficult to find stamps displaying adult humour but these little beauties are so funny.

Just a Quickie...

.....a quick card that is! This card showcases the fab Imaginisce Black Tie range. 3D Star cut on my Silhouette (sorry Juliet!!).

Oh I'm so GOOD!!!

I'm suitably impressed with myself, and not without cause I might add! Usually when I scrap or make cards my working area gets into a right state. Lately though I have been clearing up as I have been going along and my goodness it makes a difference to the whole working experience! So I'm giving myself a mahusive pat on the back.

I made an Anniversary card for the site last night and here it is. DCWV paper, Prima flowers, Basic Grey Mellow paper, fibre and letters, Dovecraft Value ribbon and Heidi Grace Chipboard.

Card Ideas...

I'VE GOT BATTERIES!! Woohoo! I've got a mountain of ribbons that needs photographing so I suspect they wont last long, but at least I could take a picture of a card I made last night.

I am constantly asked to provide more card ideas for the site, using our products. Thus I decided to make some cards for that. First one is a "New Home" card. I'm quite into the "alternate" edge so this one has a rather funky one.

Brown Bazzill Bling for the basic card, Horseshoe paper inside, Basic Grey Mellow and Blitzen paper for the front. Leaves for the inside border cut on the Silhouette, Vine and grass likewise cut on the Silhouette. House from our 3D Embellishment range. Fibres and title are Basic Grey Mellow.

Batteries!!

Batteries are like men, there's is never one around when you really need it (sorry, couldn't resist). I go through an extraordinary amount of batteries, which can't be good for my carbon footprint! All they have to do is make them last longer!! I'm sure it can be done! It's like cars, they could make cars that do not run on petrol and lasts forever, but of course the government would lose a mountain of cash in revenues and the car manufacturers would sit twiddling their thumbs. Batteries are relatively small in comparison but they must make an almost equal mountain of cash from them as I seem to spend the equivalent of my mortgage on them every month!

Every bloody thing needs them - the PC's mouse, loads of the girls games (Xbox, Nintendo DS's, Wii, Don't wake Dad game and so on), remote controllers, portable fans, and so on. The list goes on and on. I know exactly what has batteries in my house because right now none of them has any!! I have emptied each and every gadget in the house in my constant quest to satisfy my insatiable digital camera! This annoying twit drinks battery juice like a alcoholic deprived of drink for a month and out on a bender! Use the flash and you can maybe get 20 pictures out of it - if you're lucky!

I'll get off my sopabox now and go apply for a loan to buy some more batteries. Until the loan is approved I guess I wont be posting any more pictures!

How bizarre!!

My blog admin pages have decided to be bi-lingual! Most is in English but some is now in German! After posting I get asked if I want to view the blog in "einem neuen fenster"! Never seen that before! A little German Saurkraut gremlin in the works there me thinks!

I'm not well. I'm dead tired (the fact that I stayed up until 2:30 has nothing to do it!!), got a really sore throat and ear ache to boot! I cannot get ill, got too much to do! Just had a cup of Flue Plus so hopefully that'll do the trick.

HA HA HA, Amber is funny. She's just sitting there chatting (she's a right chatterbox) and just came out with "today at lunchtime I did a MAHUSIVE fart! It just went on and on" - "mahusive" is her new word for "massive". I'm sitting here laughing with tears in my eyes. The things children come out with!

OK, here's another card I did with Peppermint Twist Holiday Quilt paper. I cut the tree from leftover paper and matted it on some leftover BG Fruitcake Plaid paper (the reverse side). Just had some Funky Christmas Brads in so added one of those. Peppermint Twist Grand Adhesions and Chipboard are on there too, plus Dovecraft ribbons.

You can't see it but the paper is glittery. Here's is one with the flash on, the glitter is MAHUSIVELY exaggerated but at least you can see that it's there.

Right, I'm off to finish off what work I need to do then an early night for me! You do know I'm telling you this so I can get some sympathy don't you? Boohoo, poor me!

More Peppermint Twist

.... although this time it's half K&Co and half Basic Grey. Basic Grey Fruitcake Plaid paper with Peppermint Twist Grand Adhesions and chipboard.

Did you know there's a new range of Basic grey Christmas paper coming? I CAN'T WAIT!! Woohoo!

Peppermint Twist

Thought I'd have a little play with the new Peppermint Twist range by K&Co. This card uses the Special Delivery Embossed paper and chipboard.

New Goodies...

Lots of new stash arrived last week, the new Peppermint Twist by K&Co, Cloud9 Design and Heidi Grace stash, plus other luverlies. As I needed to make another wedding card I decided to try out the Heidi Grace papers and chipboard (Cherrywood Lane used here). Heart and wording was cut on the Silhouette. The chipboard looks quite purple on the pictures but is actually exactly the same colour as the flowers on the Heidi Grace paper.

Also seems like there's glitter everywhere on the picture but really you can't see that IRL - unless you have zoom vision, which I aint!

I'm expecting to be rid of the glitter on my face by next Wednesday!

Tuesday...

Yep it's Tuesday. Nothing particularly special about this Tuesday, it's like every other Tuesday really, the day after Monday and the one before Wednesday. Been quite a pleasant day though, most probably because I ordered stacks of new goodies for the shop! So much in fact that I can rightly remember it all now, but it should be coming within the next week. Tomorrow I am expecting a delivery of K&Co's new Christmas range Peppermint Twist so I better enter it all on the website tonight - that's another late one for me then!

As you all seem to be making Christmas cards I thought I'd make one too, my first one this year! Took one picture and the batteries went in the camera!! I hunted high and low but I haven't got any more so this picture will have to suffice. Basic Grey Fruitcake paper, trees and turkey cut on the Silhouette. I used a snow writer to add a little snow to the branches.

... not your conventional Christmas card but someone has got to speak up for the turkey!!

Mondays....

Mondays are tough don't you think? Today has been incredibly hard to get through, I really needed that extra weekend I asked for yesterday! For a start I found it incredibly difficult to get up, and usually I'm up as soon as I open my eyes! Has someone put something in the water? Since then it has been a monstrous effort to just get through each minute of the day! I must have an early night tonight! Problem is that something seems to happen around 10pm and PING I'm in the wide awake club!

I took some pictures of my new UKS Retailers CJ. Here are a few snippets. Can't post more just in case one of them peeps ;o)

Where did the weekend go??

Wow, that weekend went by in a flash! ANOTHER ONE PLEASE!! I have been busy working on a new CJ for the UKS retailers circle and it took me the entire weekend! Friday I went to bed about 2:30 and last night about the same! Still, it's finished and ready to send tomorrow. Next time I wont leave it till the last minute! I can't show you any pictures from the CJ just yet but I'll post them on here at some stage.

I got some films developed that was taken with a "normal conventional" camera. They were from Christmas but better late than never! Scanned quality is not good and I so much prefer my digital camera, but I'll leave you with one picture of me - obviously after, ahem, a few drinks! Oh deary deary me!!!!