PDCC 62 and some news!

** Edited to add a card **
** If you are looking for Create: Challenge & Card Patterns please scroll down.. **

Well hello!  A happy belated Christmas to you all!  Sorry I'm late with my posting, I thought I had set it as scheduled but had saved it as a draft.  I really am a bit ditzy at the moment, not sure why!!  It could be age, the fact that I'm slowing down because it's Christmas and there's no work to do, or just that it's me!!  Who knows! I am going to have to seriously use my diary more though.

I had every intention of blogging regularly over the Christmas period, but I ended up doing nothing!  I have been really lazy the past few days, it's been fabulous!!  I've watched a few films, done puzzles with my family and read a couple of books, a perfect Christmas! I got lots of wonderful pressies, cardmaking things, a beautiful hand made teddy, some jewellery and an iPod deck for my studio.  I'm sure you will be seeing lots of my cardmaking goodies over time.  Did Santa bring you any nice pressies?

I spent some time in my studio the other day making the card for today's Play Date Cafe challenge, I wanted to try my hand at a bit of shabby chic, a style I always admire but never quite master.  One of my pressies from my man were some of the new PTI stamps and dies, woohoo!  I used the dressform die (or tailor's dummy as we call it here over in the UK)

The colours this week are I was going to tell you the colours this week, but it would be better for you to see them!  We all had a very interesting conversation about whether the colours were ruby red, poppy, fuschia, orangey red, etc. etc.   When I looked at the swatch on my pc it looked really pink, on my blackberry really orange, so this is my interpretation of what I see in my colour swatch lol. I did add a bit of brown though!

I'm sure we will all come up with very different interpretations!  Let me know if you think I achieved Shabby Chic, it's one of my New Year resolutions to try and crack it!

I actually made the card below before I made the PDCC one.  I loved the peachy orange in the swatch that Julie had sent us and found a paper to match it.  I then decided to make it again in the PDCC colours.

There is a little story about this .. My Marmie needed a birthday card so this is what I came up with.  I was showing her bits of it as I went along, like the papers, the die cut etc, and then finally I showed her the ribbon before I attached it.  All the way through she had been saying, 'yes, that's lovely' or 'I love the paper' but when I showed her the ribbon, she said, 'do you want crumpled ribbon on it'!!  CRUMPLED??  I said (in a jokey voice), 'I'll have you know that is no ordinary crumpled ribbon darling, that ribbon has been hand died, and hand crumpled by your very own daughter, and it happens to be extremely popular on cards right now'.  LOL.  She is so funny!  So, I do hope that you all like my 'crumpled' ribbon!  I was so proud of it the first time I made it!!

Last week we had our big reveal of all the new girls on our design team, and I'm really pleased to be working alongside them all, we've already been having such a giggle with our email conversations.  Some of us in our current team have moved up, me included, to Senior DT.  Can you believe that?!!  That's a seriously big WOOHOO!!  I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am about it!!  Sav is also now on the Senior DT too and Andrea is our new Private Blend Designer.

Julie Ranae (Senior DT)

Sarah Anderson (Senior DT)

Savannah O'Gwynn (Senior DT)

Andrea Ewen (Private Blend Designer)

plus our new girls will also be joining us so check the submissions and you will see some of their loveliness there too!  Here are their links..

Jaclyn Miller

Michele Gross

Tracey Kuzniak

Jinny Newlin

Libby Hickson

Fiona Shultz

Colleen Dietrich {New Private Blend Designer}
Pop on over to the Cafe and link your post. If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC62, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win!

Here are the details of how I made them

1. Mat card base with patterned paper that has been distressed prior to adhering
2. Die cut and stamp dress form
3. Die cut nestie label and doily, distress edges
4. Tie ribbon around card
5. Attach doily and then the label using pop dots
6. Attach the dress form directly onto the label to finish
7. For card 1, tie the ribbon on twice; do one bow and then knot another bow over the top of that one to make it fuller 
8. For card 2 stand back and admire your ribbon and smile to yourself that your Marmie thinks it just looks crumpled!

Stamps: PTI Signature Series: Dress Form, MFT Die-Namics: Decorative Doily
Dies: PTI Signature Series: Dress Form, Labels 14 Nestie
Papers: Card 1: Prima Marketing Shabby Chic Collection, My Lovely, Card 2: Basic Grey Curio 6 x 6 pad
Accessories: Ribbon from stash, Ranger Distress Inks - Antique Linen and Walnut Stain, white adhesive pearls from stash for card 2 that I coloured using a Copic to match the card

Now enough of my laziness!  I am officially back in the swing of things in my studio, so you should see more of me.  I look forward to seeing what you create too! I'm off to work out what my goals are for 2011.  I have them in my mind, but I need to commit them to paper otherwise they will never happen.  I may even share some of them with you, there are no excuses then, are there?!

Create: Challenge & Card Patterns Challenge

Post number 2 of the day!  I have been making a card in my studio, definitely not a ten minute card.  The idea was created in a flash, but the making of the card wasn't!

I had started this card, and others, yesterday but it just wasn't happening.  In fact if I had posted what I'd made I'm sure you would have laughed.  I had these papers out and I just had to walk away and shut the door on my studio!  Finally I got there!

I am in lurve with this paper pad by Cosmo Cricket, aren't those colours and patterns SO me!!  This card makes me happy!  I have been playing around in my studio today trying to perfect bows, I'm quite pleased with how this one came out.  I find satin ribbon a bit tricky where it slips and slides all over the place, and basically just misbehaves!

I made this card for the Create: challenge - to make a Happy New Year card, and for the Card Patterns sketch here, such a fun sketch but as you have probably worked out I do like my circles!

I can see myself returning to this sketch again and again, it conjures up loads of different ideas.  I absolutely love it when that happens.  I am trying to find a good way for storing my sketches, because I really do love them.  How do you store yours?  Have you come across any good links for how others do it?

I'm off now, but hope to be back again tomorrow with some info about a blog award I received, and a new card. 

Have fun!