A technique in progress

Hello there

This'll be fun as I'm using the new format of Blogger today but at least I've actually managed to find out how to write a new post by clicking on the pen image of the first screen I was presented with.

A few weeks ago, I shared the beginnings of a canvas I was going to do - go here to look at that first posting. I've now finally finished it. I could give you a load of excuses as to why it's taken me so long but basically I think alot of it has been down to lack of confidence. This is definitely not a comfort zone activity for me at all and because I didn't really know where it was going, I subconsciously avoided going to it. A bit like my daughter treats her maths homework! I've now decided to call it a day with it. What do you think?

There are loads of things I can see that I'm not mad keen on, such as the blue paint slap bang in the middle; it's not a smudge, it was just created when I did the paint layer. I'm nervous of getting a brush and watering it down to move the colour a)incase I make the border between ground and sky too distinct or b) make an even bigger mess. The sun isn't anywhere near as good as one I saw online in that style and...and...and. I've considered loads of other things, such as book print/newspaper stems coloured with ink or doodling somewhere but no.




It is time to call this finished.

I'm happy with the idea of the clouds. I'm pleased with my actually owning a flower stamp and Temptin' turqoise Stampin' Up stamp pad to use. I like that the occasional flower has been coloured in with watered down ink from my craft mat. I'm also quite keen on the turqoise string I used as a centre piece on a flower to add even more interest and to balance off the mosaic tiles.

I'll keep on practising as I think they make dinky little home decor items.








Take care out there

Heart canvas

Hello there
You may not believe this. You may think I'm hallucinating. You'll probably think I've pinched somebody elses. But you're all wrong!
Last night I was invited to my friend Jackie's opening workshop in her brand spanking new studio. It's gorgeous and yet practical too. It was Jackie's very first session as a teacher and she did remarkably well considering her students were rather naughty!

I was too wrapped up in what I was doing to start with, so I forgot to take photos of the first couple of stages but here you can basically see, the first layer of book pages which we mod podged on (yes, I've now actually used the stuff). I must remember to make those pieces slighter more overlapping the edges next time, as it was a bit of a struggle to get my narrow edges to stay down.

We then used old pattern tissue paper to create some texture. I added a few sections of 3 gypsies patterned paper in one corner. I then added some Jenni Bowlin for Ranger Speckled egg paint and brushed it around. I wasn't happy that I couldn't see the patterned paper, so Jackie just rubbed some off with her fingers and hey presto! It's visible.

Then loads of things happened. Jackie gave us some bubble wrap to stamp with which is great fun. I did those flowers with a blue stazon ink pad as it's a permanent ink, which is better for any project which may get water on it at a later stage in the process.

One of my favourite bits was using a doiley which I just dabbed over the patterned edge. The little brown flecks match perfectly with the patterned paper underneath.

The sections which may appear white are actually a Martha Stewart paint called Pearl and it's GORGEOUS!! It's a very little bluey colour. These are a  multi-purpose paint too, so painting on metal here I come as that's one of the many things we've been looking at this week in BPC class.Jackie let me use that and it was perfect with the speckled egg paint to give a... well... a pearly finish, which is rather obvious considering the name of the paint but I feel it really helped the canvas come to life. I used those with some wire mesh and drainpipe cover, as either stamps or stencils.

That's the final shot of it, although I think I went round the edges of the canvas with the brown sugar dabber after this photo. The heart is done with more of the book paper and I painted the pearl paint on it and stuffed it with cotton wool. I stamped it with the spotty stamp which you should see on the canvas too; put a rub-on on (my first one ever) and inked the edges with both base colours. The heart is only glued on at the base so it stands out really well.
I ummed and ahhed about whether it needed more but there comes a time when you have to just walk away. There's always tweeks you could make; embellishments you could add, affects you could try but it was late, so time was up. That's fine. The little extra tiny flower stamping Jackie showed me to do on the canvas, did tie it all up and help it look more balanced.
I went to bed a happy girl.

Take care out there

I'm thinking of using this

Hello there

I'm thinking of using this yo-yo on my canvas. Which way round should I put it on?

Front

back

I think I'll put about three on there, as they're only about 3cm wide, so perhaps I could do some back, some front. I might just put a coloured brad in the middle too of a different colour. Or I might chose a flowery material to make it out of instead.

Too many choices :-)

Take care out there and please do let me know which one you prefer. I'm asking on BPC message board too.

Canvas

Hello there

Each journey has to start with one small step and this is the step I first took with the new canvas I'm doing.

I just rubbed a broken china ink distress pad over the top area and a shabby shutters pad for the grassed area. The intention with this canvas is to follow along with May in the BPC class. I'm not doing a step by step as basically, I can't, as I don't have all the stuff she has. May started hers by just rubbing distress stain over the canvas in a similiar random way and then she rubbed most of it off with a tissue.



That was in last week's video and this week, as she goes through the selection and decision process about what to do (she basically thinks things through as she's working), she ends up covering over her initial background with book pages. She used PPA glue but suggested that a matt art medium would work. I used that for attaching my clouds; I mixed it in with the white paint, as well as rubbing it onto the canvas area where the cloud was going to go. I don't get it. What's the deal with this art medium? I can't see how it's any different to pva glue - which is alot cheaper! I have a little sample bottle, along with 4 others -
At £10 (don't know why it says £11.99 on the box, as that's not the price I paid for it) it's a very expensive kit, so I can only hope I'll be able to see the point of the gesso etc

As you can see, I messed around more with things. I tried some paint on the sky; trying my best to make it look patchy as the sky does look. I just did little flecks of paint really for the grass. The long vertical strips were just me messing around with an ink pad and I just pressed an edge onto the canvas and flicked it quickly - it doesn't really work - unless I make them into stems for flowers, a little later on in this project.

This is the first time I've used print on anything - this is a bit of Chris's newspaper, so I had to check there wasn't a crossword on the section I ripped out; although he's been away for nearly two weeks, so it would've been tough luck if I'd ruined his crossword :-) I like the cloud on the right but I think I added too much water to the paint for the other cloud but I can always deal with that once it's dried overnight. I've also sprayed some Perfect Pearls mist all over and it does look sparkly as I turn to look at it now, whilst it's under the light.

I got inspiration for the sun style from a blog of course - http://janiescardsetc.blogspot.com/. Whilst I looked at her She Art pieces, I saw some mosaic effect work on her #10. I've seen a few people do that on their work displayed on the gallery in the BPC 'classroom'. I like it. I think I might try some of that on this piece.

But that's all for another day. I'm off to bed, as Chris will be arriving home around 5/6a.m tomorrow and it's 11p.m now.

Take care out there

Horse birthday card

Hello there

I need to make a card which is for a 13 year old girl who loves horses. I knew there was a horse on the Create a Critter cartridge, so I went to get that and I've just looked at a video on youtube, which has encouraged me to get going basically. It's by a lady called Tracy, so please check out her video here to see what you think.  I do love the doodling around the card and particularly the white pen marks to highlight the tail and mane. I want to use the horse shoe cut that's on the cartridge and I don't think I'll include the bandana but other than that, I'm not completely sure where it'll take me. I often just need something like that video to set me off on a track.

The horse is cut at 4inches. I embossed him with the Divine Swirls embossing folder and then sanded him a bit, since I'd used a card from the distress collection of Coredinations. The red background is cut from Ornamental Iron 2- it's the base shadow function of gate8a on page 30- size is 5. The background paper is gingham effect from K&Co, which I think fits in with the rural type setting. Maggie decided that she liked the bandana, so there it is.

I absolutely love the difference the doodling makes, in particular to the horse; it brings him to life! I've made him dimensional as well by raising him up with glue.

The banner across the back I wanted to have texture, so it could almost be like a bale of hay. The handmade paper I used for the sentiment fits in perfectly as it makes the stamped image slightly soaked in and completely in keeping with the card.

Don't you think the nose section looks like a smiley face?!

 Once it dried, I decided I needed that much more 'roughness', so I distressed the edges with my scissors.

The horse shoes were cut at 3/4in I think it was.

If nothing else, it might get a giggle out of the recipient
or Maggie'll be appalled and tell me to ditch it

Inside the card, I used the card left from the horse die-cut as a template, put some worn lipstick ink onto my craft mat with a few drops of water and dabbed some cotton wool and painted into the template. I'm not convinced it's a great look but it was fun experimenting.





The envelope was distressed with worn lipstick and a few left over horseshoes came in very handy to decorate.

For the record, there's also a very nice looking horse image on the Carousel cartridge, which I also have. I might try doing something with that for my next horsey card.

I'm going to bed a happy girl.

Take care out there

Herman is real!

Hello there

This is my third posting about the sourdough cake, which I'm to call Herman according to the instructions. This is quite a feat, as when I first heard about the concept from my friend Melanie, I laughed it off as a joke of hers.
As I type, he's in the oven with about 15 minutes of cooking left, so I best type quickly.

This is how frothy he was before adding cake ingredients

In many respects there isn't alot to say as you just put all the ingredients in the same bowl as you've had your mix in for the last 10 days. I kept my mix in my Kenwood mixer as it has a clear plastic cover for it, so ideal for covering him yet allowing air to get in. So every day I had to stir 'him', I just switched it on. Before you ask, yes I did wash the K-mixer each time.

                                                                                                    It's not the best looking mix in the world, it has to be said.





There's also rather alot of it:

That's clearly nowhere near big enough, so into the cupboard I went to get my only other bigger one. I expect you could use several smaller ones if necessary but don't forget that will affect how much space you have in your oven.

Now this was a much better fit.

                         

This was it after 20 minutes- looks much better now

....I just need to nip downstairs to check up on it..... house smells gorgeous of cinnamon :-)

It's huge!!

I did enjoy washing up a few pieces (why do I always seem to create so much washing up?!!) and then sitting on the sofa in the kitchen area with a cup of tea, a Cadbury's cream egg and some favourite tunes playing including 'when you say nothing at all' (Ronan Keating), 'don't love me for fun' (Boyzone) and 'inside out' (Bryan Adams). Yes ok, I'm showing my age and these are oldies but they made me feel good and relaxed.

The result of my labours, which seems an extreme word when it's so easy to do:

I had the oven at 175c (as original instructions said to have it between 170 and 180) and it was in there for over 45 minutes but I still think it looks rather moist but hopefully by the time it's cooled down, it'll be fine. It's a good job it freezes well though as that's alot of cake, unless I decide to invite half the street round for coffee :-) I think I will invite my friend over though, as she was unable to do this little bit of fun, due to having rather alot on her plate at the moment. She might appreciate the break, the chat and perhaps a smile or two.

Go on, have a go and spread the joy!

Take care out there
p.s it wasn't ok after cooling down. After having a couple of pieces for dessert, I had to put it back in the oven and guess what?! Yes, of course, I left it in rather long. It's not burnt thankfully but much browner than this, which suits me fine as I prefer it that way.

Liebster Award recipients

Hello there

As you may or may not know, I received a blog award this week - see my previous post about this here. I am meant to give the award to five other bloggers but those blogs can't have more than 200 followers. Yesterday I figured out two recipients for this award and they are:

Sally-Ann with her Crafty Bunch blog - http://cardsensations.blogspot.com/ - please do visit as Sally is very good and has recently been asked onto the Queen of my craftroom design team. Sally-Ann has some health issues yet she loves crafting and tries to do as much as possible and they're all very pretty from cards to painted house name plaques.

Yesterday via Sally-Ann's Facebook page (sorry again Sal for hijacking your post) I 'met' Donna Williamson who talked to me about the Tim Holtz new die-cutting machine Vagabond and some alphabet dies for it (or the Grand Calibur). I was so so tempted to buy it but total cost came to almost £200 with another die as well, so can't justify that at the moment. I went to her blog to have a look and she's got some gorgeous cards on there and is also on a design team; The Crafty bloggers network. Please do go and visit at The Smiley Crafter

I still have three to hand out, so watch this space or if you know of a blog that I might like and qualifies for the under 200 followers mark, let me know about it and I'll have a look.

Take care out there

Herman has been split in four

Hello there

Well Herman has done very well, if bubbling along like a good 'un is anything to go by. Yesterday was the day to split him up into four equal parts. My total mixture came to about 1 litre, so of course each portion was 250ml. I handed out two of my portions to different friends and the third one goes to Nathalie tomorrow. I also printed out my copy of the instructions from the version I did on here for a post but added a pretty butterfly border - had to be done :-)

I'm now off to make my portion into a cake- wish me luck!

Take care out there

Herman

Hello there

Last week my friend sent me a text asking if I wanted to take part in a sour dough cake sharing exercise. My first thought was "is this a joke?" as she often sends me funny jokes by text. I was rather busy so I thought it best not to answer straight away, so as to give myself a chance to figure out whether she was being serious or not. Of course, I forgot and then Mel asked me again and I saw her that evening and she gave me Herman. That's right, the mixture is even given a name. When I had first seen the words sour dough, I had imagined a bread mixture as I remember seeing a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall programme where his dough chef was teaching a local lady how to make it for the kids in her nursery school where she worked. This isn't bread though, it's made into a cake. Mel gave me a taste of hers and it was lovely; a bit like fruit loaf.It takes 10 days to prepare but only a tiny bit of effort as the mixture itself does most of the work by filling itself with air basically.

That's Herman after his first day with me - pretty good going.
These are the instructions you get along with your bowl of goop.

'Hello my name is Herman. I am a sourdough cake. I'm supposed to sit on your worktop for 10 days without a lid on. You cannot put me in the fridge or I will die. If I stop bubbling I am dead.
Day 1 - After receiving Herman put him in a mixing bowl and cover with a loose tea towel.
Day 2- Stir well
Day 3- Stir well
Day 4- I am hungry. Add 5oz plain flour, 8oz sugar and a cup of milk and stir well.
Day 5- Stir well
Day 6- Stir well
Day 7- Stir well
Day 8- Stir well
Day 9- I'm hungry again. Add the same as you did on day 4, stir well and then divide into 4 portions and give 3 away to friends. You keep the 4th portion. Copy these instructions for them.
Day 10- I'm now very hungry. Stir well and add the following:
8oz sugar
1/2 tsp salt
10oz plain flour
2/3rd's of a cup of cooking oil
2 eggs
2tsp vanilla essence
2 cooking apples cut into chunks
1 cup raisins
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder

Mix it all up and put into a large greased baking tin. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of brown sugar and a 1/4 cup of melted butter.
Bake for 45 minutes at 180c.
When cold, cut into pieces. The cake freezes well and is good served with ice cream or cream ..... I prefer it just with some spread on it, helped down with a cup of tea.'

I'm only up to day 7 at the minute with mine, so I'll let you know what my one actually tastes like and if I managed to get three friends to take up the challenge.




Take care out there

I've got an award!

Hello there

My lovely friend Helen has deemed fit to award me a Liebster Blog award

This is my very first award and Helen made me a very happy girl with her comments, so thanks alot Helen and please all do go to http://helending.blogspot.com/ to see what she had to say and to see all her creative work. Helen used to do Stampin' Up products, so you'll see loads of ideas with their stuff.

Liebster is German for Dearest, but can also mean Beloved or Favourite.

Now with all blog awards there are 'rules', and Liebster is no different:1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog - done
2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you - done
3. Copy and paste the blog award on your blog - done
4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed (see below)
5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

I'm having trouble finding blogs suitable as the under 200 figure, really narrows things down. Some blogs I follow also don't show the amount of subscribers. Another issue I've found is that people I want to award it to, have already had it.

I'll hold onto it for a while as I don't want to just hand it out for the sake of it; I want it to be given with meaning :-)  So watch out; you might be getting one soon.

If I ever reach 200 followers I'll be absolutely amazed and very happy, although then there's a slight pressure to 'perform', which I don't do very well. I'm just me. Doing my do. Enjoying my crafty stuff but if more people want to watch from the sidelines, then that's fine by me.

Take care out there

Mother's day

Hello there

Quite a quick post today. I've made my Mother's Day card. It was simple to make with some papers I got from Crafter's Companion free downloads but I liked the colours; turqoise/light blue and brown are my favourite colours together for this year. I just copied a design virtually from one of their samples. The flowers, tag and topper are all raised for dimension. I put glossy accents on the gold band of the badge on the ribbon. I'm wondering if I should've added some glitter to the wet glossy accents too but since the papers have been distressed, I'm not sure that glitter would be suitable. There is a strip of lace down the left hand side which this photo doesn't reveal clearly. You may think this is not a great deal of effort for my mum but believe you me, this year she celebrates her 70th birthday and she will be getting spoilt 'big style'! I did have to buy the right colour Baker's Twine but that's no hardship :-)

I do love in many respects that there are so many facilities available for us crafters for free. If you're 'canny'  (money smart) then you could do very well. You do need a good printer and the right paper/card though or it's false economy. I have a HP Photosmart C4480. It's not much use to be honest, especially now since I've lost the disc for it so haven't been able to install the software on my new laptop, so now I can't scan or re-size. Yet May Flaum has one and says it's fine, as this issue was discussed recently on the BPC class message board. Epson seem to be popular in America, especially the 810. Some people use an online printing service but I'm never organised enough for that, so I want the photos there and then; not when I get time to order them and then wait a few days for them to arrive. I'm also very impatient. I sometimes need unusual sizes, so that hinders me from going to places like Asda to get them printed on those self-service machines - perhaps should look into what sizes those machines will actually print at though, rather than assuming.

Don't forget that Mother's Day is only 9 days off now! - I do hope that my daughter reads this! :-)

Take care out there

Feedjit isn't doing it's job

Hello there
I've just been to check the stats for this blog and seen that my audience is far greater than feedjit states. You can all see what is shown on my Feedjit bar, which isn't exciting but this is what is shown on my stats:

Sorry about the poor quality of the video but it was the only way I could think of showing the information and I enjoyed using the webcam as I so rarely do.

Take care out there

First grid layout

Hello there
Today's posting is all about a layout I've done for the BPC class this week. We're in week 4 now, which is scary as that seems like such a long time yet I never get enough time to do as much with it as I'd like/need. This week's topic is pen and paper. Whingeing aside, I did enjoy the:

• Four Techniques video showcasing four different fast tutorials on four techniques
• Step-by-Step video
• Pen video showing how to make the most of  plain journaling pens
• Project handout with this week's project images, step-by-step instructions and supply lists
• Sketch handout with three hand-drawn sketches that feature lots of opportunity to utilize paper and pen work
• Bonus handout with tips, tricks, and ideas for using papers and pens

You do get an awful lot of help each week and on top of that we also get an inspiration email from a well known 'crafter' or artist. This week's was from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, which I've only just realised that I hadn't even seen - there's just so much stuff, it is easy to miss things. I'll read that once I've completed this post; although it might have to wait until tonight as we're off to the hairdresser at 4 and it's 15.43 now, so I'd better get a wriggle on :-) We get a new topic tomorrow, so I like to ensure that I've done at least one project to 'hand-in' before the end of the week. And I've done it!

It's taken way longer than it should've done but hey, you've heard me say that before. Last week's layout was about the dog's first birthday, so this week I decided to scrap photos of their first day with us. Just finding the photos was bad enough as they're on several computers but Chris's are the best but he's away in Morocco at the minute, so I can't get them, which caused delays of course. I found some on Maggie's computer but then the printer didn't print one out properly and I'm not convinced with one of the photos I've actually had to use.
It started life like this:

That clearly is not good enough. I soon got to thinking about the neatness of it, so thought it best to put the individual 3" squares in a skewiff manner. I also thought that I need to 'dirty' it, so I got my vintage photo inkpad out and got to work on the edges. Come on Diane; you need rougher, tougher action to represent the impact the dogs had on the house and us, so off I went to get my scissors and roughened the edges; tore a bit and made a 'dog-ear'. I was on a roll, so I continued with the blending tool all over the paper - this was fun and 'freeing'. I had contemplated putting a paper background but it would've been far too busy in my opinion and I would've had to matt the photos and that just didn't work for me at all.

May had shown a video about dampening the edges of your paper after inking it and rolling it to give a vintage/aged effect. Off I went to put water in a little bowl, got a paintbrush (yes, I have those in my room now, waiting eagerly for a friend's painting class I've been invited to) and had a great time doing that and then re-inking over it where some white appeared from the back - good fun!

I cut the dog house from Create a Critter at 3". I used the same papers as I had already to try to calm down the pattern influence.

I used my gold Dabber in three places to try to form the triangle 'linking' effect I have heard people like Melanie Heaton talk about. If you have items creating the triangle, it is meant to connect all the pieces into a uniform appearance.

I drew some paw prints, as that links in with this week's theme of pen/pencil and with my layout of course. Once I'd done the title in pencil, I didn't think it was clear enough, so I stamped my vintage photo pad onto my craft mat, sprinkled some water onto it and then put my paintbrush into it and painted round the letters to help highlight them more. I enjoyed that, so off I went writing different associated words all around the layout - good times!

I decided to write the journalling freehand on the page as anything else just didn't feel right.               

 That was it. Done.

I enjoyed it and I've been to chat with some crafty friends tonight, so I'm happy. It was meant to be craft and chat but chat basically took over as we hadn't had a get together for a while. I also had a very productive chat yesterday with Linda, who is running The Crafty Network, to support craft businesses



 

All these things help keep me happy and knowing that the world isn't all full of negative, horrible people; there are lovely, creative, friendly people too. I need to keep being reminded of that for my well being.

Take care out there.

Mini-album for an expected baby

Hello there
I've finally finished the mini-album which I've been working on for about a week now. I've thoroughly enjoyed it, other than the post I did about how to put the basic structure together. The theme for their nursery is going to be yellow and safari animals; particularly giraffe's, so that's helped give me a focus.

The papers I've used mainly to decorate it are Best of K&Co too but also coredinations and some from the Tim Holtz/Ranger distress coredinations pack.

I die-cut most things on the front; the giraffe is from Create-a-Critter Cricut cartridge (c,c,c and more c's); the Love cut is from the Heritage cartridge word function and the title was cut from the shadow function of Plantin Schoolbook font. The loveheart stamp is from a Debbi Moore pack.

I've just stamped four hearts in each corner of the first page. I've left some pages more open like that to give the couple more freedom in how and what they put on those pages. On the right hand side, I've created a pocket which they can put a photo on and inside I've created a journalling tab- I made it in CraftArtist with the Bambino Thoughts kit. I made the giraffe with shrink plastic - it was my very first one and I'm totally hooked with the stuff now. It's also my very first handmade album too, so I've been introduced to a few things and loved all of them. I just printed a giraffe from the internet to fit the size of the shrink plastic sheet, coloured it in with some of Maggie's felt pens as I don't have any fancy markers and then heated it- job done yet it's so so cute and perfect for this project. I do love the effect the lace has on this page. I've tried to make the album suitable for either girl or boy, so fingers crossed they agree.

The next page is basically blank other than the 'BABY' cut from Heritage. Then there's the page which I used my home made giraffe stamp on. I put a photo of this on the BPC class gallery and I had positive feedback, so that spurred me on. Of course I didn't own a stamp with a giraffe on, so I made one with Cricut Cuttables. I only have Distress ink pads in green, but I love the look it's created. The black giraffes were created with Archival Black. The tag inside the pocket was created in the same way as the previous one but I created a different tab and used the word 'cute' this time.

More adventures on these pages as I used my giraffe stamp on some seam binding. The distress ink I have is clearly not correct but then the whole album is distressy in nature, so that kind of fits. I loved doing it anyway. Just the word Child from Heritage again and some of the Debbi Moore corner stamps on the other side.

Fun and games with  the same ribbon just across the page, with the journalling tag hanging from it. The tag is one of the elements from the Cosmo Cricket Togetherness collection, which I distressed the edges with 'Shabby shutters' as I did most things.

The final page has another Cosmo Cricket journalling tag with a giraffe cut from Paisley cartridge and just a patterned paper on which to place the photo/s on the right hand side.The back just has some patterned paper on it.

The box I made and embossed with the help of my Ultimate Pro, then I sanded it all. I decorated it with the help of Craft Artist with the At the Zoo digikit. I ripped around it and then inked it with Dusty Concord. For the record, I wouldn't recommend buying that kit really, as it cost £3.49 and you don't get the brushes or the layouts. It's a generic kit for any software, so you have to add the items to CA yourself; it doesn't install it automatically as with normal CA kits. Having said that it suits my purposes down to the ground as that frame is brilliant for the box or any zoo themed item- there's a leopard striped one too.

What fun that adventure was. I want to make plenty more of these; so I've bought some 'proper' 8x8 chipboard pieces. Watch this space.

Take care out there

Seam binding is an amazing thing

Hello there

This post is all about a baby shower card. I've never been to one before so I had to do a bit of research about them although clearly I knew the basics. The baby won't have been born by the time this card is given, so I can't use any specific colours. Insider information told me that the nursery is going to be a yellow theme with jungle animals and giraffe being the favourite. The card won't necessarily go in the nursery but I tried to create it along those lines. I got the idea from the handbook in with the Paisley Cricut cartridge. Unfortunately I quickly realised that the size of the giraffe was incorrect in the instructions, so changed that; it states make it at 4" but infact it's 3". It's a tiny bit confusing at first when you cut out a load of little shapes in different colours but I just cut what I thought necessary (as I'd lost confidence in the instructions by this time) and went from there. It soon came together though once I'd decided on what colours and papers to use for the whole card.
I printed out the greeting and then cut the circle around it.

I needed green ribbon for the background and the only one I had was a glittery type one, which would not do at all. The weather is pig miserable here (written in the first week of January 2012) and I have to go out enough with the dogs and the nearest decent shop is in Frodsham which is about 30 minutes away and Hobbycraft is closer but there's a new road layout there and the resultant traffic on a Saturday wouldn't have been fun. You get my drift. So I was definitely not in the mood to go out and get some and I'm impatient; I couldn't wait until I ordered some. Then... brainwave! Proof it's not completely dead - seam binding. which I got a while ago and haven't used yet. I quickly opened MyCraftStudio and selected  a green band of colour and then put the glue runner down the printer paper and attached seam binding to it and printed. I even put the band of colour on the right side of the paper to where I'd attached the binding! Result! You can barely see the ribbon but I was so chuffed that I'd thought of it and it worked - everyone in the house was required to be as equally happy with this event but they're used to that. I have some blue sheer ribbon which I can use to attach the sentiment blossom.

Once I had glued all bits together and down, I didn't think it looked complete - it needed grass. I searched online for which cartridge had grass but couldn't find anything, then actually manually looked on the cartridges and would you believe it?! My old faithful; Plantin Schoolbook has a grass image on it, so problem solved.
I'm off to do the envelope now.

Take care out there
p.s the next day I looked at it again and had another proof of brain action, when I was considering how to display the petal sentiment. Ah ha! A branch would hold the sentiment and add good detail to the card as giraffes obviously eat leaves off trees. I chose the branch from Create a Critter cartridge on page 25. There is also one on my Winter Woodland cartridge but shock, horror, that's better suited to winter scenes as the leaves look like holly or the other one on there looks like a mistletoe branch.

Date of writing: January 9th 2012