Day 10 of Blog Marathon

How do people find enough interesting things to blog about each and every day? My life must be duller than dishwater as I am seriously struggling here. Today I had cheesy scrambled eggs, a shower, chicken chow mein and a headache. The end. Interesting?? noooo, don't fink so!
My mojo has been lacking for sure that is for certain, I managed to make 8 cards before noon and then the rest of the day was a washout and seemed to involve a lot of shuffling stuff and not actually doing much so I am feeling mightily unprepared for Sunday's Letraset shows. I'm sure it will be fine, I just don't seem to have any samples or much to take with me which is making me slightly nervous, but I think it's just because it's a go-with-the-flow kinda show packed with techniques rather than cardmaking. We don't get anywhere near enough time with Letraset on C&C so I feel that I don't want to waste it sticking and glueing and would much rather dedicate the precious minutes to actually showing you how to use the products if that makes sense.
At this point I have to apologise that the Pretty Tuff gallery cards still aren't loaded online but the week has been a busy one and I have SO many samples to photograph I swear it's a full day job and this week it's not going to happen, there are more pressing matters I'm afraid. I WILL do them as the next priority job though, promise hand on heart!

So onto today's card from Belles n Whistles again...This is Belinda with Teddy...soo cute! Quite a simple layout on this one and very quick to make and colour. Those ribbon roses are de-lish and are on the website here. All I did was use a Nestie and little swirly die-cuts. Since I got my Grand Calibur I have been die-cutting crazy! Well, what I did was to spend a whole afternoon one Sunday about 5/6 weeks ago cutting out with all my dies, and I literally cut 100's and then laid them all out between sheets of acetate so they don't get all twisted up and wrecked...it's definitely a task worth doing rather than cutting one die at a time, I will definitely do it this way again, I now have a whole drawer of lovely shapes all ready for me to use. I tend not to use coloured cardstock that much which you've probably noticed. This is just a personal choice for me, I like to always have plain white on my cards somewhere, I find it really makes things pop off the card and looks really pretty in my opinion.

So I coloured Belinda and her Teddy with Flexmarkers here, again I just adore how I can get the faded jeans with a swish of a brush whereas in the past I've used 3 or 4 colours to achieve the same effect and still not got the fade as nice as these here, love it...
Right, that's it for today, I will try my hardest to do a post for Sunday but I may well be doing it from the Green Room between shows I think, it will be a busy and long day tomorrow and Sunday! x

Day 9 Belles n Whistles...

Day 9? but this seems to be taking forever! Note to self: before setting a 15 day post challenge next time make sure you have a clear diary and plenty of interesting stuff to talk about.
I am currently sitting prepping for Sunday's Letraset shows (9am and 12-2pm) and I'm using some products which are probably not really my bag. But sometimes it really does you good to get out of your comfort zone and try something different. The one thing with doing samples and demo's for TV is that you often have to use stuff you wouldn't normally look at and to top it all you have to really try and make it look good. So here I am working with metallics and things I normally steer well clear of and actually quite liking some of the results I have to say. I'm running out of steam and in a random act I have just discovered a new technique using a new product I will be showing on Sunday - and I LOVE it! woohoo!! nothing better than discovering something new in a happy random accident but it's just made me go from loving this product to adoring this product! I can't wait to show you, I think  you'll like it too.
So, onto today's card...let me see what we have here....

 I have to admit this photo is quite washed out and not really doing the image justice, her hair looks pretty poor on this image and the stamp is called Jam Jars. I coloured her with Prisma's and of course the papers are all Pretty Sweet, as is the sentiment. Another Marianne's die-cut too, which as you know by now, I am in love with.

 Did you spot the velvet ribbon again? Swooooon. This is the pink version, it really is orgas-mo.

Right, one must get on, time is a tocking and Sunday's a knocking!...
ttfn x
Oh by the way - if you havent checked the Polkadoodles blog today you must! Blog Candy is on offer!

Polar Bear dreams...

I woke up last night at 4am to the sight of my OH lurched over my desk mooching around in the dark. Now sometimes he is prone to a little sleepwalking, I often wake to find him trying to open the wardrobe doors or rattling stuff about, it can be amusing but also annoying if you're really tired.
But this was the first time I've seen him mooching round my desk..."What's that noise?" he said when I asked him what he was doing - ok, I know you're not meant to wake a sleepwalker but it looked like he was about to interfere with my desk and my desk is off limits! "It's just the traffic outside" I said, as he stood looking puzzled at me, "are you sleepwalking?"I asked, getting grumpy at his antics.  And off he shuffled to the loo, chuntering about "the noise, been listening to it for last half hour" blah blah blah. So as I went to go back to sleep it suddenly dawned that at 4am there IS no traffic and it sounded like we were next to a motorway outside, not on a quiet street with very little traffic ever...so I wondered what it was for all of 3 seconds...then I realised...just before I went to bed I'd been watching polarbearcam.com in the arctic and I'd left the page open on my PC! So it was the Cam's wind howling and blowing and it had been there for 4 hours LOL!  So I turned it off, chuckling to myself and hopped back into bed again. He came back, still chuntering on, so I thought I'd let it remain one of life's little mysteries for him tee heee. Go on, go check out www.polarbearcam.com and you'll hear the noise then  you'll understand why it was so funny!...

Anyway, I hope you managed to catch today's shows on Create and Craft where we launched the new Pretty Tuff CD to the TV audience. Wowser, this has been so popular, I can't believe how many we've sold already, we've had to order more production already and we only launched it at NEC 2 weeks ago! Needless to say it virtually sold out this morning which I'm not surprised at that price, I must have been asleep when we agreed that multibuy deal I think, outrageous! And did  you see Tracie on her tv debut - she did great I thought, never known her so quiet though lol.

So, onto whatever day it is for Belles n Whistles...one has lost count by now of how many days...

 This lovely design is called Sweet Summer Days. Oh, how I wish I could choose a fave but I just can't. I do have a thing about hats and I'm loving this one. This card was made in a snippet of time, i think it took 15 minutes from start to finish including the colouring with the ultra speedy Flexmarkers.

The thing I love about Flexmarkers - did I say that before? that I love Flexmarkers? the thing is they're just SO SO SO super speedy to use! You no longer need a blender pen, just sweep a flexy over the top and it blends itself - awesome! I have some Letraset shows on Create & Craft this Sunday 27th at 9am and then toolshed between 12 and 2pm - if you want to find out more about Flexies or any Letraset products (and I have something new to show you!) then tune in. Also if you have any techniquey questions you want answered, please let me know and I will try my best to answer as many as I can. I'll also be showing some fab stamps and the fab Safmat from Letraset too - again if you don't know what this is you NEEEEED it in your stashbox, so tune in and I'll show you why!
ttfn campers xxx

This forward scheduling thing is kinda neat isn't it...I suppose I shouldn't really be telling you that I'm not really hunched over my puter typing furiously before I go on air! anyway, I'm scheduling this for 8am Wed 23rd and if you're reading it at this point - turn on Create and Craft, we're on!! :D
And if you've missed it we're on again at 10am with Dawn Bibby!

Anyway here is today's card from Belles n Whistles...something for Crimbo...

This stamp is called - funnily enough - Christmas Door. Funny that! She's such a cutie, I loved colouring this one and because it has so much detail you can keep the rest of the card really simple. I seem to be having a diamond phase right now, a shape I usually don't like, but I think it's more because yet again it breaks up the edge of the card here for me...

A Marianne's leaf die and papers from Magical Winter and a bit of ribbon and Bobs your Unc, Fanny's your aunt. Ooer missus.
I am going to give some more blog candy away today - one of these lovely Belles n Whistles stamps (not sure which it will be yet, depends on which I can bear to part with)...so to be in with a chance of winning tell me if this was you knocking on this door, who would you find on the other side of it?? Leave your answers in the comments below this post!!
See ya tomorrow.

Quickie post

This will have to be a quickie post today, I'm struggling to keep up with my allegiance to post every day for this 15 days or whatever it is LOL! I've literally just finished prepping for Wednesday's shows and had to have a little mini sort out at the same time just so I could actually FIND stuff I need to take with me! This room is in some serious need of organisation and a damn good clean, it has a ginger carpet again. I bought a new hoover that could sit just inside the door thinking I would use it each week if I didnt have to lug the Dyson upstairs...yeah right, as IF! Twice, I say twice in 6 months is more like it!  Maybe 3 times.

So, Tracie will be on my shows with me this week, please give her your support as I think she's seriously bricking it, I've never known her so quiet ever, but she'll be fine. She actually has it easy anyway, I could've been really mean and made her do the entire show on her own first time bwaaahahah! Anyway she'll be great, I have no idea what she's worrying about tee hee...yeah ok easy for me to say 3 years down the line, I do remember how much I was quaking for my first show too! And all the rest afterwards! Now I just don't think about it any more. At NEC Create & Craft asked me to do a half hour show with them on their stand - I found that much more frightening, having an actual audience in front of me, I was papping my big girl pants I can tell you! Then I noticed the screen was so bad the poor audience couldnt even see what I was doing anyway, it was a complete waste of time really but we had a laugh.
Right, onto today's submission - are you sick of Belles n Whistles yet? Well I am on a mission to introduce this gorgeous range to you so it's bloody hard chedd., I loooove Elisabeth Bell's designs and I am rather starstruck as we've been emailing each other lately, she's such a sweetheart, but mad as an aussie hatter.
So what do we have today??...how about this beauty...

I do love this image, I think it has to be one of my favourites from Elisabeth, it so reminds me of my Sarah Kay duvet cover when I was a kid, it totally takes me back to being 18 LOL! Well, ok 10 then. This is called Happy Mail and it does make me happy each time I see it, it just evokes images of playing out in the summer holiday and yummy cold lemonade and baking with my mum and grandma for me. 

I've coloured this with Flexmarkers and Prisma's and I wanted those lovely soft vintagey tones which I love on here. Papers of course are yet again my 2nd fave combo from Pretty Sweet and that flower I made with one of the brand new EK Success punches which sorry, we sold out of at NEC! Love them, as did you!

I'm really into having everything falling off the sides of my cards at the mo, have you spotted it yet? and did you spot that ribbon again? oh my, yes I am actually using it LOL! I hope you've left comments on the last 2 days posts to be in with a chance of winning my blog candy this week...who knows, there might be some more to come yet so keep tuning in!...
x

Kitch Fail

I always considered myself a pretty decent cook but just lately I seem to be more Cant Cook Wont Cook than I have ever been in my life! I've had a string of kitch disasters lately, including sticky chicken which was so sticky it ruined by un-ruinable v expensive Woll pan and literally stuck our teef together so bad we couldnt eat it and ended up rolling about laughing at each other's sudden pearly whites turning into a shade of bonfire toffee brown! This was just one of the recent escapades until just tonight when I opened a lemon meringue pie to remember I'd dropped it as I put it in the fridge.

This is how it went in the oven, still in the dish and how it came out of the box , and how it came out again LOL - simply classic! Tastes yum, looks like shit!! 

It actually looks like something my OH would make. He is not a cook, in fact today I discovered he's never even "opened" an egg before. "Opened". Do I have to say any more? This is the man who told me he used to boil eggs in his kettle when he first left home, then wondered why they exploded and the kettle broke. Seriously. This is the man who, when I was seriously ill with bad gastroentiritis and laryngitis at same time came back from the shop with food (having been sent) armed with a chicken & mushroom pot noodle, 2 raspberry yoghurts and hobnobs. None of which I like when I am well, let alone when i'm sick and haven't eaten for 4 days. I rest my case.

Anyway, I could go on but I won't, I don't want to shock you any further!

I've been prepping for my Create and Craft shows on Wednesday today, after making so many projects this week I'm flagging a bit I must admit. I managed to finish my magazine projects yesterday but forgot I had all the step by step bits to do and it's like making part of the proj 4 times over again - twice! AND trying to get all the colouring exactly the same each time! I tell you, those who wish they could do magazine commissions sometimes have no idea how much work is involved!  But I've just made a lush project for Wednesday which I love, I think it will turn out pretty cute so long as I don't cock it all up when I glue it together like I usually do.

Anyway, onto today's little offering for Belles n Whistles using a stamp called Teatime. This is a relatively simple card using papers from Pretty Sweet CD (again - sorry but I heart these papers, the colour palette is one of my fave ever, especially that strawberry pink on the polka dot, swoon!) Again, I let the stamp do the work here and I've reverted back to my retro days of when I first started cardmaking lately doing the matting at jaunty angles look. I used to do this all the time and I loved it then and still love it now to be honest. I've just embellished this one with a die cut, ribbon flower from the website and some Viva Decor glass 3D paint. This image was coloured with a combo of Flexmarkers and Prisma's.

I've also decided to offer some more Blog Candy - if this post gets more than 20 comments I will choose one random person to receive a really cute special edition exclusive stamp.  This stamp was produced ONLY for my Class project yesterday and is an Amelia image from the Pretty Sweet collection but she has been specially drawn as an angel with wings specially for this project class and is limited to only 8 stamps in the whole entire world! She is waiting for Santa and leaving his mince pie for him on his travels...

I really had a lovely time at yesterday's class, there's always something lovely about the last one of the year and it was made especially nice with 5 new people all who'd travelled a fair old distance to join us (namely, Felixstowe, Chester and Durham!). I tried to make the project a special one so the people who'd travelled far wouldn't be disappointed and they all loved it as much as I did I think...

This is a lovely box card - the box being inside and 1.5" deep x 7x7". I think I must've seen this somewhere else as I woke up with it in my head and knew exactly what I was going to do with it, I am in love with these huge poinsettia flowers at the mo, I think they're really stunning. They're just plain old flowers on stems but once they're cut down they're perfect for putting on Christmas projects I think. I wanted it to be half in and half out of the aperture, which was of course cut with my favourite Nestie grand oval die.

We embellished the box with Marianne's die cuts again and some holly which we coloured with Promarkers. The Angel is the one which is up for today's blog candy - isn't she cute! 

So make sure you leave a comment under this post to be in with a chance of winning her and don't forget there is blog candy up for grabs on yesterday's post too! x

Giveaway Blog Candy

Woohooo! Today I have some blog candy for one lucky person who leaves me a comment! I will be picking whoever makes me laugh the most so leave me your wittiest comments please (not jokes, that's cheating!).

So it's Sunday and ordinarily that should mean a lie-in but anyone who has cats in the house knows full well that can't happen. Plus I am busy mid-prep on magazine commissions and TV demo's for this week so the OH will be gutted there's no Sunday lunch this week! Hah!

So today's Belles n Whistles lovely is this one, this stamp is called Star of Bethlehem. I adore this image! It barely needs anything doing to it but I had to get a glow from the star onto the girls the best I could whilst still keeping the simlicity of the image. This is coloured with Flexmarkers which enabled me to get the softest possible blending I could achieve. If you've not used Flexmarkers before - HELLO!- where have you been?? They are basically like a Copic marker but personally I find they blend better because they're slightly wetter.

This pic doesnt really do this justice, not sure what happened to my photography this week, it's a bit pants and out of focus for some reason. The dresses are coloured in Antique white and Linen. Papers, poinsettia's and gems are all from the website, papers from Magical Winter CD. The sentiment is also from the CD and has just been set into a Spellbinders Ironwork die-cut. I love how dramatic the poinsettia's are on this card. They could be overpowering but because the colouring is so clean looking it offsets the drama I think.

So make sure you leave me a comment (seriously, it doesnt have to be funny really) and I will choose someone to receive a copy of our Pretty Tuff CD, which is brand brand new and worth £14.99! The winner will be announced in the next few days!

See you tomorrow, hope you're having a relaxing day! x