Back 2 School... already?!!

Hi there

Happy Sunday! It's a bank holiday weekend here for us, so it's nice spending some time together as a family before the onslaught of packed lunches and homework starts again! It has been so nice not having to get up early. It's not that we've been getting up particularly late, but we've been able just to chill out in pj's and in my case with no make up! I love that.

So, onto my final card as part of the Design Team for the Corrosive Challenge Blog. The theme for this week is 'Back to School'. I had quite a few ideas for this one, including rulers, torn off notepaper, staples, pens. It was therefore quite difficult to decide what to do, I almost had too many ideas! After lots of sketches drawn out on the tiniest of notepads I decided on this as a layout.





Firstly I cut out two squares, one in black and one in Cogsmo DP. I matted these onto a white cardstock base. I then got to work on my little clipboard. I wanted to bring in a blackboard effect so cut out a black rectangle and then found some little white bulldog clips in my stash which sparked the idea of the clipboard. I made a little yellow file using a rectangle of card and punched out a SU! file tab, and then added another blue 'file' behind it, again just a rectangle of card. I attached the bulldog clips and a couple of coloured paperclips and adhered it to the card using pop dots.

I cut out the '1 + 1 = 2' in white Easy Peasy alphabet set, but lots of the alphabet sets don't have the 'plus' sign so I improvised by using my nurse cutter. The nurse has a red cross on her uniform which was the perfect size for it!

I cut out and added the 'Back 2 School' letters in black down the left hand side. I wanted them to look a bit random rather than neat so stuck them down at angles. Finally I hand wrote the words 'Have fun!' onto the tab using a fine marker pen.

Dies: Sizzix 'Nurse', 'Easy Peasy Alphabet Set, 'Playground Alphabet Set', Quickutz Crayons
Paper: Cosmo Cricket 'Cogsmo', assorted cardstock
Accessories: Mini paperclips and bulldog clip from stash

I think it's been a good time for me to be part of a DT because otherwise I wouldn't have got around to being very creative over the holidays. I've had a few problems posting feedback on entrants though, for some reason my system crashes when I try to leave comments on certain blogs. It's really strange. Does that ever happen to you guys?

I would like to say thanks to Janet for all the inspiration over the past few weeks. It has been really good fun working for her and I wish her all the best for her future challenges. I know I will definately be popping in to join in when I get chance. I really do need to get back into doing my challenges though, it just hasn't quite happened lately, but they do get you thinking :o)

I'm sure this week will be a busy one for us, what with labelling new uniform, shoes, pencil cases etc. etc but as the sun is shining we will definately be making the most of our last few days together for the holidays.

Take care, keep creating, and don't forget to check out the rest of the DT's cards this week. You must join in. This challenge is really fun to do!

You're a Star

Happy Friday everyone!! I can't believe it's the weekend already, can you? I must be getting old, the time seems to be going by quicker and quicker lol

Today I have another quick make card to show you. For some reason at the moment I'm into stars and circles. I whipped up a quick boyz birthday card for one of our friends. Did you notice that I haven't used a challenge for it this time, be amazed..be very amazed!! I do love my challenges, they are great for getting my mojo going!

I think this card is self explanatory, so will just leave you with the recipe.

Dies: Sizzix 'Circles #2', Quickutz Star
Paper/Card: 3 Bugs in a Rug 'Seeing Stars - Twinkle', Bazzill Bling & Classic
Accessories: Stampendous birthday phrase stickers

Hope you all have a lovely Friday and I will try and post something over the weekend.

Hugs, Ruby ♥

Boop boop dit-tem dat-tem what-tem Chu!

I've just been over to the Corrosive Challenge Blog and Challenge #4 is 'Under the Sea'. So I thought I'd whip up a quick fun card with a baby fish on it, and as I was doing it Marmie (my Mum) reminded me of a song that one of her old friends used to sing to me when I was little with the words 'Boop boop dit-tem dat-tem what-tem chu'! She was asking me what it was called so we did a Google search and came up with this You Tube video.



Do any of you remember it? Now, the ONLY reason I am showing you this is so that you get why my post has the title it does. It's a bit of nostalgia for us, but you will think I'm totally insane if you actually take the trouble to watch it!! The young kids will love it though :o)

(Well, in my 'About Me' section I did warn you that I'm quirky!! In my defence it has got a 4.5 star rating, so it's not just me that's watched it lol)

This is a really quick card to make and could be used as a template for so many different designs...Think heart instead of fish, or shoes/handbags etc. etc. A quick change of papers and die cut and the world's your oyster! (sorry that was an awful pun). I'm in a mad mood today, sorry everyone!! I cut two strips of different card, layering one on top of the other. I cut out two circles in different colours and added the die cut fish. I then stuck on the tag and finished off by adding a few circles as bubbles (using the spots from my Quickutz Easter Egg cutter) and a gem for his eye.

Dies/punches: Sizzix 'Fish & Fish Bowl', Quickutz Easter Egg, small/medium circle punches
Paper: Cosmo Cricket 'Cogsmo: Bandwidth', 'Cogsmo: Links'
Tag: Express Yourself DIY cards (I love these tags, they are full of bling and you just stick them on..one day I might make something similar of my own...one day)
Gem: From my stash

By the way, do any of you know if it's ok just to add a You Tube video to your blog?? I'm guessing it is because you can just embed the code, but I don't want to be breaking any copyright laws!!!!

Following up from my last posting where I asked whether you have a cardmaking budget or not a couple of you have a budget, some just spend until they are broke and one is in a stamp club so the cost is spread monthly. At the moment I am in the middle category, but I'm guessing with a new house I might be entering a lot more 'Use It!' Challenges to use up my older stuff!!

Have a great Thursday!

Love You Mum x

Happy Saturday everyone. Hope you're all having a good Saturday :o)

We have had a lovely day, early afternoon we all took Lulu to the park. Ian and Natasha were running around like mad with Lulu until her little red tongue was nearly hanging on the floor! She loves the park. She scared us half to death earlier though, she ran out of the house when Ian was locking the front door and she ran along the pavement beside the main road towards the park. Luckily she looked back at Ian as if to say, 'are you coming then' and then she bounded back towards him when he called her name. It was as if she was saying, 'I'm going to the park on my own if you won't take me'!! After that we picked up Mum and popped over to a local shopping village which has a handful of sweet little shops. We bought Lulu a darling 4 poster dog bed!!! It's adorable. We had some lunch out in the sunshine with Mum and then we came home and have been perfectly lazy ever since! My kind of Saturday :o)

My card today is for Marmie (Mum). I just hope she doesn't go on line tonight and see it!! My Mum is very special. She has been a tower of strength to me over the years. We have our moments, don't most mothers and daughters, but I always know that she is there for me no matter what. I love her so much. Unconditional love...it's a truly amazing thing. I hadn't really fully understood it until I had Natasha.

I created this card using the colours from Kristina Werner's latest Color Inspiration Challenge #46. As soon as I saw the colours I knew exactly what paper I was going to use for it.

I also wanted to try out one of Kristina's new techniques with ribbon that she has just been showing for her Year in Cards class for March. It actually went a lot better than I thought it would!



I cut and layered two rectangles, one in blue Bazzill swiss dots paper (love it!) and the other in the sei tulip paper. The colours are actually more vibrant in real life but I still have to master my camera. Up against Kristina's image it looks so faded!

I then cut out three smaller rectangles, the largest in red, then blue swiss dots and finally the white. I stuck the white card onto the blue and then played around with the ribbon technique by Kristina. I used a pink ribbon which I wrapped around the blue/white card, but thought it looked a bit too modern for my Mum so I added a piece of red ribbon to cover the staples. You can see the video tutorial here. I cut out some Quickutz tulips and stuck these to the card, using pop dots for the centre flower for effect. Finally I doodled around the edges of the white card because it looked a little plain.

Dies: Quickutz tulip
Paper: s.e.i DP, not sure of the name, it's an older one, Bazzill Swiss Dots
Accessories: Ribbons from stash, Copic Multiliner 0.03 for the doodling

So my lovely Marmie will be coming down for lunch with us tomorrow. We were going to go out but Natasha asked if we could stay in so I am going to cook us a simple lunch and we are all going to spend the day together. Natasha and Ian have been whispering to each other on and off all day, so I'm guessing they're up to something for tomorrow.

I have put in a request for a bath, some chocolate (obviously!), some vanilla coffee (did I tell you I'm a coffee addict as well as a chocolate one?!) and some time to read a magazine/book. Don't want much, do I?! Lol. Oh yes, and a bit of cardmaking thrown into the mix of course!! That's my idea of a perfect Mother's Day. The thing is when you're a mother you have to do things for your own Mum too so it's not quite the same, is it ;o) Not that I would have it any other way though. It's lovely getting us three generations of girls together.

Well I am going to sign out now. Enjoy the rest of your Saturday and I will be back soon. I have a couple of quick and easy cards to share with you ♥

Going Green!

Hi again

I was going to post this yesterday but it was a bit tricky because the card was for my Mum for St Patrick's Day and she is an avid reader of my blog, although she isn't an official follower. Shame on her lol. I am going to enter this into for challenge #3 at The Corrosive Challenge Blog. The challenge this week is to make a card that has green on, so this one is perfect for it!

It's another quick make, I cut out two rectangles, ran them through the embossing folder and rounded the corners. Before sticking them down I added in a couple of staples (got this idea from Nancy over at 'Scrap This'. Thanks Nancy ;o) Her cards are great, so bright and cheery! I then cut out the heart which I ran through the embossing folder too and then inked the edges. I cut out a little rectangle from Basic Grey paper and rounded those corners too. I stuck the green panels straight onto the card, then added a pop dot under the BG paper to raise it. I stuck the heart on and added the shamrock which I also pop dotted. Finally I stamped the sentiment in green. It's not that easy to see the layering here. Oh yes, I also doodled lines around all of the green card, but not the shamrock.

I took the photo in the garden for a change, it's been absolutely wonderful out there today. Why is it a bit of sun makes you feel so much better in yourself? :o)

Today has been yet another stressful day on the house front, we've have been 'exchanging' since last Tuesday and each day get told that 'today is the day'. Hmmmm, me thinks not! We still have a bit to go on the packing but we're getting there, thanks to my lovely Marmie (Mum) that pushes us to keep going. She's great, she really helps us get things done!

Well this is just a quick post now, off to direct the packing of yet more boxes! I will leave you with the recipe for the card;

Dies: Sizzix 'Hearts, Double', Cuttlebug 'Swiss Dots' Embossing Folder, Quickutz shamrock
Paper: SU! Glorious Green & Green Galore & white cardstock, Basic Grey Cardstock (spare sheet, sorry not sure what the name is)
Stamps: Hero Arts 'Happy St. Patrick's Day'

Gothic Fairy

Hi there

As promised I am back to post a card tonight. I made this card for Ian's daughter, Charlotte (hope she's not reading this!) It's her birthday tomorrow. She loves all things goth but still has a girly side to her so when I saw this fairy cutter I knew I had to do it for her. The idea for the 'dark' fairy itself is taken from my local craft shop, they'd made one up using a scallop circle behind her. I wanted to do something different though and have gone with a teen theme. Starting from the bottom up I cut out some 'texting' paper which I thought would be quite cool for a girl of her age, she's going to be 16. I then made up the gothic fairy and used my artistic licence with Kazan's Sketch #22 over at 2 Sketches 4 U!

This week 2S4U have a competition whereby the children can also take part to win a prize. I'm trying to talk Natasha into entering one, whether she will or not is another thing. So, for now, so that she doesn't feel pressurised I am just going to enter mine. If she chooses to do something later in the week she can. She's actually quite good at cards, you can see one of her creations here in one of my older posts.

So, back to the sketch... As you can see from the pic the sketch is to use 1 square and 2 rectangles. Well I've used the fairy as the main rectangle, the larger gift as the other, and the smaller gift as the square. (Hope that's ok Kazan!!) I cut out and embossed two squares using my Nesties and then embossed them using a hearts Quickutz folder. I then cut out two strips of sparkly card to make lids for the boxes, and attached the ribbon. Finally I added 3 photo corners and the letters/number 'HB2U' to keep in line with the 'text talk' on the paper.

Hope you, and Charlotte, like it!! I'd love to hear what you think!

I haven't listed the recipe because I'm falling asleep over my keyboard here but if any of you would like it just drop me an e-mail! If I remember I will edit it with the info tomorrow, but unfortunately I'm not an elephant and I do forget!!

Night night, sweet dreams! :o)

Easy Boy's Card

Hi there, hope you all had a good weekend. We had a lovely time, we saw friends on Saturday and had a lovely lazy day yesterday. The weekends fly by though, don't they?

So, this time I have a quick and easy make card to add. I don't know about you but I find cards for boys in their late teens a bit harder to do. In my family the boys tend not to be into anything specific. They are all really traditional and don't play football, golf, go to the pub etc. They are all quite studious, but I've already done that whole studious theme thing too many times. I wanted to make a card that I could adapt for boys' birthdays and came up with this simple idea.

I cut out a piece of green cardstock to match my ribbon, added two strips of brown at the top and the bottom. I tied the ribbon around the back of the green card before sticking it down. I cut out a star using my Quickutz star cutter and stamped a sentiment. Before I stuck the star down I added a brad.

Dies: Quickutz star
Paper: Bazzill Classic
Stamp: Rubber Stampede 'Swirl Happy Birthday'
Accessories: Corner rounder, ribbon, brad

Not my normal style, but sometimes it's nice just to do a simple card, don't you think?

Papertake Weekly & Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge

Hi again

I needed to make a card for my friend's birthday, and wanted to do a package to match to put her little gift in. I was looking through the 3d Design Challenge blog and came across a recent challenge to make a treat pouch and thought it would be perfect. I made one version but my card was a bit too thick, so I made it again using a slightly lighter card. It was SO easy to make. I really thought it would be hard work. Once I'd made the pouch I then punched a hole in the layer that you fold down, tied on the ribbon and added three flowers with a brad. As I tied on the ribbon I added a stamped tag before doing the bow just to add a little interest. I will definately be visiting that site again, that was great fun!

I then made the card to match, using the same sketch from 'The Sweetest Thing' that I had used for the Anniversary card in my last posting. I have only just come across this challenge blog, it looks great fun. Yet another sketch challenge place to add to my ever growing list!!! The cards that Karen has made on there are gorgeous. On this card I created a pocket for the tag to sit in by only sticking down the three sides of the paper. I also added some faux stitches around the pocket, but I'm not sure if you can see that in the photo.

I thought the pouch and card would be a perfect entry for the Papertake Weekly Challenge, where they said that 'this weeks challenge is to make a matching set! You could make a matching card and envelope, a card and tag, a card and ATC, a LO and a tag - the combinations are endless!' If you haven't entered this already I would encourage you to make something, it is so much fun trying to think up a matching set, they're right the combinations are endless.

Dies: Sizzix 'Tags, Scallop Combo', Quickutz corner die
Stamps: Hero Arts, 'Friendly Greetings'
Paper: Imaginisce, ''For Peep's Sake, Drapin' Daisies, Bazzill Classic
Accessories: Swarowski gems, K & Co Wild Saffron brads, ribbon from my stash

I hope you like this set, I'd love to hear your comments.

Kiss Me!

Hi and Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

I finally got around to making some cards for the challenges that I have been meaning to enter. The first one is for the Kristina Werner Color Inspiration #40. As you can see you had to use red, black, grey and white.

Ok, so here goes...

I made a card for my man and I wanted it to be a bit of fun. Firstly, I cut out a rectangular shape in dark grey bazzill bling (not sure of the actual colour name, I always just call it 'dark elephant'!) I then cut a smaller one out in 'light elephant' bazill bling. (again that's my name for it, not theirs, sorry!) I cut out the word 'KISS' on my Cricut machine on the normal setting in black and then on background setting in white. I then cut out some luscious red lips in red cardstock, and a candy heart for the bottom left of the card with 'I♥U' in red. It hasn't come out that well in this pic though. I raised the word 'kiss' using foam pads and then stuck on the random lips and I also did the candy heart in 3d. I added a some black and white ribbon because it looked a bit bland.

For the bottom right of the card I cut out the word 'me' and then added an exclamation mark using my new 'Abbie Lover Duvers' alphabet set.














I took a photo of that for you so that you could see the dot of the exclamation mark...it's a heart, isn't that just SO cute?!!!

Dies: Sizzix 'Abbie Lover Duvers' Alphabet Set & 'Phrase, So Me! So You, So Us! Quickutz lips and candy hearts, Cricut 'George and Basic Shapes' Cartridge
Paper: Bazzill Bling and Classic
Accessories: Ribbon from my stash

I will be back later to add on some more cards, I'm off to the craft shop now to pick up some more supplies. I'm hoping I might even get a couple of Valentine's pressies from my man while we're there!!

Catch you later x

Bee Happy!

I decided to have a go at the Mojo Monday #72 sketch this week. I LOVE this sketch, it is gorgeous. I just love this whole sketch thing in general. It's so much fun seeing what others create, and how people interpret the sketches in such different ways. I have seen some beautiful designs out there that would never have even entered my mind.

I thought I would do something non-Valentine's Day for a change! I enjoyed making this card, the colours are really fun to work with, but it didn't photograph very well however the paper is intended to look distressed anyway. I still need to play around with all the lighting side of things. Rae came up with a great idea for a light box, I am definately going to try that out ...well I will get Ian to look at it for me! I have not done a challenge on Mojo Monday yet, but have been looking at them for the last couple of weeks with the intention of getting around to it.

My interpretation of the sketch is below. Hope you like it...



*Edited - to add goodies used*

Dies: Quickutz bumble bee, Cuttlebug embossing folder for yellow strip behind ribbon
Paper: K & Co 'Wild Saffron', Bazzill
Accessories: Ribbon from my stash, s.e.i burnt almond fudge alphabet stickers