Cosmic Colours Challenge #1 - Winner & Top 3!

Good afternoon my lovely peeps!

After pottering around in the garden most of the day, I'm now sat at the patio table, under the parasol with a lovely glass of the ol' Pimms.

It has come around to the exciting moment that I announce the winner of my first Cosmic Colours Challenge. It was quite difficult to chose as all your entries were stunning! 

Design Seeds®

The winner is...Radhika! 

Congrats to you, I thought your use of the colours with the stencilling produced beautiful results. Email me your postal address and I will send some goodies to you and I will also email you back with the code so you can display the Challenge Winner badge on your blog.

Radhika

The top 3 are... 

Sherherazade

KT-Fit Kitty

Elly

Sherherazade

KT Fit Kitty

Elly

Well done all! If you email me I will send you the code for the Top 3 badge. If you haven't got a blog and uploaded your entry via an online photo editing service such as Flikr or Photoshop, I can send you the Top 3 badge image for you to put onto your photo album.

I know there weren't many entries and I understand that with it being the first challenge, but please keep entering and tell all your friends! I will be posting later today with Cosmic Colours Challenge #2.

Before I sign off, a big thank you to those who did enter, it really means a lot to me and I've really enjoyed looking at your blogs/photos to see your beautiful creations.

Ta ta for now :o)

                       

Cosmic Colours Challenge - update!

Hello my lovelies, 

Just a quick post to let you know that I've decided to include all paper crafts in the challenge rather than just restrict it to card making only.

Don't forget you still have until 11.55pm (GMT) on 31st May to enter. Below is a reminder of the colours and a link to the actual challenge rules and InLinkz tab to upload your designs. 

If you don't have a blog of your own, you can upload images through an online photo editing site such as Photobucket or Picasa. Get the URL code for your image and upload that through InLinkz.

Design Seeds ®

Click here to take you to the challenge.

Before I go, I'd like to thank those who have entered so far, your creations are stunning, it will be difficult to choose a winner.

It's early days yet, here's hoping that the challenge will take off. Please tell all your crafty friends! 

You can enter as many times as you wish, it's open to everyone and you can win craft goodies or a badge to proudly display on your blog (if you have one).

Thanks for stopping by xxx

Monster Birthday (created with Cricut Explore)

Good afternoon peepsicles!

Simon and I spent a lovely weekend in the garden building chicken defences as the girls were taking over the patio (fingers crossed they haven't found a way round them yet). Simon is convinced that they are plotting to kill him, he says you can see it in their eyes. and that they are just like the raptors in Jurassic Park.

Today I thought I would spend a little time with the Cricut Explore as we have a family birthday coming up. I decided to do young Thomas a monster card. 

Here is a piccy of the creature feature...

What you need...

Die-cutting machine: Cricut Explore

Images: Bump in the Night - Fang #M440C6, Mr Baggs #M3DD63, Mr Marty #M3FA48; Doodlecharms - Star #M2FF07

Lettering: Cuttin' Up Font #S30

Vinyl: Black - Cricut

Card stock: brown, lime, orange, turquoise, white

Papers: 'Pinch of Hair' Monster Stew Collection 12x12  - Jillibean Soup

Card blank: white A6 top fold

Adhesives

What you do...

Die cut the three monsters in coloured card and assemble. Cut the stars and wording in black vinyl. 

Cut out one of the large journal spots from the 'Pinch of Hair' paper and mat to the left of the blank.

Fix the wording to the top of the journal spot, arrange and adhere the monsters at the lower right corner. Stick the stars above the monsters but below the wording.

Ta da! Simple!

I'm so in love with using vinyl on cards at the moment. It's so easy to work with and it cuts so cleanly and makes sticking letters to a card much easier than getting messy with glue pens. 

The monster images are so cute and I can't believe the precision of this machine. I'm keen to upload my own designs and see how they come out. I'll keep you posted on that one.

One of the brilliant things about the Explore is that you don't have to spend a lot of money on a cartridge if you only want a couple of the images. You can now purchase them individually and they start from only £0.79! Another good thing is that you can play with images, manipulate and re-size them before you buy. If you are happy with the image then you will be asked to purchase it before cutting - brill or what?

If you already have the Cricut Mini, any cartridges you purchased and have stored in your Cricut Craft Room will automatically be transferred to your Design Space.

Well that me for the time being. Don't forget you still have a couple of weeks to get those creations uploaded in the Cosmic Colours Challenge. You can enter as many times as you wish and you could win some lovely crafting goodies!

Thanks for dropping by xxx

Dude (created with Cricut Explore)

Afternoon chums!

It's a beautiful day here in Norfolk. I spent the morning pottering in the garden with the chicken girls (I'll have to get some recent photos of them), cleaning out the fish pond and the pumps (yuk). Now I've come back inside to get on with commissions, but I thought I would give you a peek at the card I made for Robert, my brother-in-law.

And here is the fine specimen...

Robert hasn't got a moustache, doesn't wear glasses or a bow tie, but I thought these images were too cool to ignore.

What you need...

Die-cutting machine: Cricut Explore

Images: Brooklyn Iron-on #M365CF

Lettering: Cricut Alphabet Font

Vinyl: Black - Cricut

Papers: Hipster 6x6 Paper Pad - Basic Grey

Card blank: white A6 top fold

Adhesives

What you do...

Select the image (all three are linked) and re-size to fit your blank. Cut out the images in black vinyl. Carefully peel the glasses and the bow tie from the backing sheet and stick to patterned papers. Carefully cut each one out.

Mat a piece of the red dot paper to the top of the blank so it comes down just over half way. Attach the glasses, moustache and bow tie to the patterned panel.

With the Cricut Alphabet font cut out the words 'Dude' and 'Happy Birthday' in black vinyl. Apply the 'Dude' to the front of the blank, and the 'Happy Birthday' inside.

It literally took me minutes to create this simple card. In fact, it took me longer to choose the papers!

At the launch in London, I decorated a plain cream cotton bag using Cricut Iron-on. I chose a cartoon image of a Jolly Roger and cut him out in black glitter iron-on and then gave him a moustache in raspberry pink! I'll post a couple of pics of him and I think I might do a quick card to match as well.

The only thing I need to point out is that when you do searches in the Design Space for images, bear in mind that it is American, so you will have to search with words spelt the American way.

Tip:- If you want to search for moustache, you need to spell it 'mustache' :o) Most of our words that have an 'ou' in them are usually spelt without the 'u' in American English.

Well, I hope you like my little creation. Thanks for calling by and I'll see you soon xxx

Cricut Explore!

Good afternoon!

This is a long post but an exciting one for me as I get to show you the new Cricut Explore. 

I attended the exclusive Cricut Explore launch in London on the 24th April 2014. We got a chance to meet the CEO of Cricut and some of his team and designers, plus the wonderful gals from Ranieri Communications who organised the event. 

The venue was held at Altitude on the 28th floor of Millbank Tower in Westminster. The venue and the views were breathtaking. Drinks, cupcakes and lunch were provided along with a photo booth and two manicurists! 

After presentations from the Cricut team, we had a chance to make and take. It was a fantastic day.

It is available to buy for the first time tomorrow (Fri 16th May) from 8.00am on Create and Craft. If you are not a great fan of Create and Craft, the Explore will be available to purchase from Crafts U Love on 26th May 2014 and from Hobbycraft, Amazon and other craft retailers from June 2014. At the moment you can pre-order from Crafts U Love and Amazon.

Here are a few shots of this gorgeous machine....

Cricut Explore - Closed

Cricut Explore - Dial

Cricut Explore - Open With Cutting Mat

Cricut Explore - Open Angled

Cricut Explore - Open Angled 

Cricut Explore - Marker

Cricut Explore - Cutting

It comes in a beautiful shiny box...

Gorgeous box!

What do you get for your money?

What you get in the box

In the box...

1 x Cricut Explore

1 x storage bag

1 x power cord

1 x USB cord

1 x quick start pack

1 project materials pack (Black and Jade Cricut Cardstock, Silver Cricut Vinyl, White Cricut Iron-on, 2 Duck Tape sheets (colours may vary), Instructions on how to use the Vinyl, Iron-on and Duck Tape)

1 x Standard Grip cutting mat

1 x blade and housing (pre-installed)

1 x pen and accessory adapter (adapter pre-installed)

From opening the box to creating a card using some of the materials from the pack it took about 25 minutes. You need to set up and configure the Explore to your computer and update the firmware. All this is simple and straightforward with easy to follow stages.

So what can you do with the Explore?

You connect to the free online software called Cricut Design Space. This is what you use to create your projects. There are more than 50,000 images and hundreds of ready-to-make projects for you to get started right away.

There are also blank canvases for items such as t-shirts, so you can visualise what you are creating. You can even change the colour of the t-shirt on screen. Another bonus is that now you can upload and use your own images, designs and fonts.

You can now cut and write at the same time which is a great idea if you are making lots of invites. The Explore will cut a wide range of materials from leather to wood veneer!

For those of you who have the Cricut Mini, any digital images/cartridges you have in your Cricut Craft Room will automatically be transferred to the Design Space. A slot is incorporated into the machine so you can use existing cartridges.

Price? 

The machine will retail at £249.99 including VAT. As well as thousands of free images in the Design Space, there are no-commitment subscriptions are available - £7.49 for a month (25,000+ images) or £79.99 for a year. single images will also be available to purchase starting at 79p per image. Pen sets, replacement blades, mats etc. are also available.

In the future Cricut will unveil an app for the iPad, so users can sync and cut with the Explore using Bluetooth.

This machine isn't just for scrap booking or card making. Interior design, clothing, jewellery, household items and furniture can be created or decorated; the only limitation is your imagination.

Here is the card I whipped up using the material pack and one of the ready-to make projects.

If you want more information about Cricut...

Visit - http://uk.cricut.com.intl

Purchase Cricut products - http://uk.cricut.com/shopping/ProductLanding.aspx

View project ideas - http://uk.cricut.com/project

Become a fan or follow - www.facebook.com/CricutEU, www.twitter.com/CricutEU, 

www.pinterest.com/Cricut

I'll be back soon with another post to show you another card I created with the help of the Cricut Explore.

Until then take care and thanks for persevering with such a long post xxx

                                     

Cosmic Colours Challenge #1

Good afternoon my lovely followers!

I'm excited to launch the Cosmic Colours Challenge!

Instead of the blog candy giveaway, I thought it would be nice for you all to get involved, plus it lets me see what gorgeous creations you all come up with.

Here's the first colour swatch...

Design Seeds®

 And my sample...

The creator of the winning card will receive a craft goody and also a code to display the Challenge Winner badge on their blog.

Three runner up cards will be chosen and they will get a code to display the Challenge Top 3! badge on their blog.

  

There is also a 'play along' badge that you can display on your blog. The code is in the sidebar.

This challenge will run until 31st May 2014 23:55 GMT. Afterwards it will run from the 1st of each month.

Good luck everyone!

An InLinkz Link-up

April Candy Winner!

Hello my lovelies!

 

Hope you are all well and looking forward to the weekend.

 

I have for you the winner for the April candy and the two runners up. As I always do, I gave you all a number and then used Random.Org to select the winning number.

 

So, without further ado do.....

 

1. Nikki C
2. KT (Fit Kitty)
3. Paperpapier
4. Berina
5. Vinita
6. Iris
7. Elly
8. Lucretia
9. Suman
10. Robin
11. Rebecca
12. La Vikinga
13. Carmen
14. Somdeepa
15. Anjali
16. Dawn
17. Mags
18. Bev
19. UT
20. Jaya
21. Leanne
22. Laila
23. Radhika
24. El
25. Olenkaja
26. Glo
27. Jennyfer
28. Cebelica
29. Neha
30. Jenn
31. Kiranmayee

...and the winner is - #17 Mags!!!! Wa-hey! Well done Mags! Email me your postal address and I will get your goodies posted to you asap.

 

Now for the two runners up who will each receive a little something.

 

Congratulations to Elly #7 and UT #19! As with the winner, if you email me your postal address I will get the goodies sent out to you.

 

Many thanks to you all for entering the blog candy. I have something a little different in the pipeline for the future (just sorting out a few things), so watch this space. Ooh! Mysterious!

 

Take care all. Thanks for dropping by and have a great weekend. xxx

Easter Chickens!

Hello chums!

What a glorious day it is today! The sun is shining, the birds are singing.....wonderful.

I know I haven't really been posting much this year because of with everything happening with my dad; but I am getting back on track now and hope to be posting a lot more makes. I also have something exciting in the pipeline that you will all be able to join in (watch this space).

I would also like to get back to doing a regular spot showcasing makes using the Cricut Mini. You never know, it might tempt you to pop one on your birthday or Christmas wish list (just make sure you leave it so it can be seen/found/read.

Anyhoo! Talking of makes; I know Easter has been and gone (there are still some choccy eggs left - yummy) but I have another little card to show you.

What you need...

Patterned papers: TV Dinner 8"x8" Mini Deck - Cosmo Cricket

Card stock: white

Stamps: Picoti Picota - Artemio

Ink pad: Onyx Black - Versafine

Promarkers: Apple cider, Cocktail Pink, Pineapple Crush

Ribbon: dusky pink

Gems: clear

Adhesives

What you do...

Stamp three chickens and the eggs across a piece of white card 12.5cm wide. Colour in and mat onto the bottom of a 12.5cm square blank, trim any excess.

Cover the top two thirds with the quirky squares paper. Tie a loose knot in a length of ribbon and attach across the bottom edge of the paper.

Print out a sentiment, trim and fix to the right of the blank just above the ribbon and finish off with a few gems.

This paper pad from Cosmo Cricket is so me :o) it's very retro with lots of quirky images and wonky lines. The colours are muted tones of pinks, greens, yellows and creams. Reminds me of some of those 1950's cartoons. Love it!

Tomorrow I'm in London for the launch of the new Cricut Explore, hosted by the fab Cricut EU and Ranieri Communications. So looking forward to it. I went to the Cricut Mini event last year and it was a fantastic day, with lots of demos, makes and goodies. Why not check out their website? http:/uk.cricut.com/intl

For now though, back to the commissions for Crafts Beautiful and PaperCrafter magazines.

Take care and thanks for stopping by xxxx 

Easter Wishes (and a huge egg of ginormous proportions)...

Aft'noon peeps!

Are you looking forward to the Easter holidays? I am. It will be nice to have Simon around over the four days. Hopefully the weather will stay lovely and I'll get more gardening done.

I'd like to show you a little card I whipped up for Easter. I sent it to my mum and the gang up in Yorkshire. Here it is...

What you need...

Papers: Cotton Tail 6x6 Paper Pad - WRMK

Card: white

Stamps: Picoti Picota - Artemio

Promarkers: Baby Pink, Oasis, Pressed Leaf

Ink pad: Onyx Black - Versafine

Punches: circle 1.5"; 2"

Gems: clear

Adhesives

Mat a piece of blue spotty paper at the top of a 12.5cm white blank and a narrow strip of plaid paper underneath, leaving a small gap between the two.

Stamp a chicken onto white card, colour in and punch out with the 1.5" punch. Mount onto a punched 2" circle of pink paper. Mat to the left of the blank, over the gap.

Print out the sentiment, trim and fix to the lower right. Finish with a few gems.

The layout was based on this sketch, rs#82 by Retrosketches...

Click here or on the link in the sidebar to discover this and more fab layouts.

Okay, so you are probably wondering about the ginormous egg mentioned in the title. Well....the other day I found an egg in the nest box and no kidding it is massive! I think an ostrich laid it (I suspect it is Dolly).

No wonder she struts around with a wide eyed look on her face. I've taken a picture (sad, I know) with another egg (of average size) with a ruler to give you a general idea. The size of the thing! There is an omelette for two just in that one egg.

How did she push it out? The mind boggles.

The eye watering evidence......

I think I might blow it and save it to compare with any other rugby balls laid in the future.

I am going to go now, but I'll be back soon. Thanks for dropping by. xxx

A Krafty Thank You!

Aft'noon peeps!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I've been busy making a rag dolly. I made several of them a few years ago and my mum always said she would like one. Well, I've finally got round to doing her one.

When she's finished I'll take a few photos and will post them for you to see. I can't give too much away or post the photo's until I've given to mum (my mum reads this blog).

As the posts regarding the projects I did for the March 2012 issue of Crafts Beautiful have gone down so well, I thought I would share another with you all (I did seven for the Card School - floral cards using one paper pad).

What you need...

Paper: Cara Marie 12" x 12" Paper Pad - K and Company

Card stock: Kraft, white

Punch: scallop border

Stamps: Big Sentiments - Personal Impressions

Ink pad: Olympia Green - Versafine

Gems

Adhesives

What you do...

Make a Kraft card blank 8.5cm x 13.5cm and cover the top two thirds with the Kraft floral paper. Punch a scallop border along a piece of white card and fix to the blank under the patterned paper. Arrange and attach some die cut flowers so they overlap the border.

Finish with a sentiment stamped in the lower right corner and add a few gems to embellish.

There you have it! A quick and simple card that can be rustled up in next to no time. I'm not sure how available this paper pad by K and Company is now, you might find the odd one out there in Internet land. You could use any floral paper collection that you have in your stash (or maybe see somewhere, which is a good excuse to purchase).

The Cara Marie pad did come with sheets of pop out die cuts; if you choose a floral paper that has quite big blooms, you could cut a few of them out an use in place of the die cut flowers. There are some gorgeous papers out there that just scream to be cut up, plus it makes the paper go further!!

Okey dokey.....back on with the dolly. Thanks for dropping by and I'll be back soon :o)