Too early for Christmas?!

Not for us cardmakers! There are some of us that are really organized and make Christmas cards all year round. Personally, I always leave it to the last minute so I can use the latest season products, ie scrapbook patterned paper that only arrives to the UK in November the earliest so the excitement of the new product makes the whole process even more enjoyable- yes I do love making all the cards that we need to send out.
However, I often get commissions for magazines articles in summer so I think Christmas all year round. So, I have learnt the lesson of stocking my christmas product box all year round. That is how I got this Penny Black Stickers called Christmas Everywhere. They are gourgous and quick and easy for a great look without breaking the bank - The Glitter Pot stocks them here. The message is one of my InCircles and the red heart pin is from Sugar and Spice which stocks an amazing range of loose embeelishments perfect for someone like me that is so picky about colours and shapes and sizes.
By the way, today there is a three hour -14:00-17:00- craft program on QVC dedicated to Christmas Cardmaking. Dawn Bibby is hosting it, I hope that I get to see some of the cards I did for some of the kits last week.

Coloring In

Coloring is something of a love or hate thing for me. I have always opted for rubber stamps that featured solid images. Part of it is that my coloring is not that great. The thing that, although I don't think I do it properly, I enjoy coloring in as I find it relaxing. So, forgive me if the colouring in is not up to your standards.

This is one of my favorite cards at the moment. The blue paper in the background was a left over from a Cuttlebug demo. I used the back to write "Gone for lunch, back in 15 mins." But as I love the blue shade I decided to recycle it

I used for this card Penny Black stamps: Splendor No. 3977H - splendor and salutations
30-014. Making Memories felt button and generic buttons.

And the third Penny Black card

This one was a bit of a miss from the word go. But even though is not perfect -not even the photo is good!- I kind of liked. Reminds me of having fun while making cards, not to worry too much about card perfection but learning during the process.
For this card I used queen anne's lace 3939K and allegro 30-033.

More Penny Black

Following yesterday's post, I kept Thinking Inking and did this other card. Like yesterday I used distress inkpads from Ranger.
Yesterday's card had a message that read " Too Much of a Good Thing is Wonderful" and kind of thought it is absolutely true only if one is able to appreciate it. We often forget all the goodness that surrounds us because we often concentrate in the not-so-good stuff.
For this card I used hillflowers 3938K and the message is from the clear set sentiments 30-025.

Stamping just for fun

One of my favorite card makers, Jennifer McGuire is doing a series of video tutorials, Thinking Inking, on Ranger inks and stamping and invited everyone to participate. I have been watching the tutorials and been very inspired to have a proper play with the inks and some beautiful stamps.

Last week I got a load of Penny Black stamps. I love them, in my opinion, they are some of the best traditional rubber stamps out there. I love their images. And they have stamps to suit every taste! So I decided to use some of them for the Thinking Inking.

For this card, I use the japanese maple 3932K and allegro 30-033.

By the way, yesterday early afternoon I had the delivery of the iPhone. It's so cool! And sending sms is so easy. I used to hate sms and since I had so many minutes included used to by default call rather than sms. But I think that is going to change now!

More demo cards

You can see the estate of the table!

Look what I just bought!

After much deliberation -over a year!- I finally ordered a new iPhone. I am nervous as it is the first time that I actually had to pay for a mobile, but since I needed a new phone as the old one used to freeze every now and again -with emphasis in the now- and could do with a calendar/email/iPod, I took the plunge.
I should get it in a few days! Can't wait!

Patterned acetate

I love acetate, but patterned acetate I find difficult to use. So a few months ago, I challenged myself to use some, here you have the result.

More Bo Bunny

This card was part of an article I did using Bo Bunny Papers for Cardmaking and Papercraft. At first this colours didn't do it for me, but then I loved them. The brief was quick cards and that is what I did, almost always do!

Card Keeper

Out of all my articles I think this one is one of my top favourites, mainly because even though I made it to fit a brief sent by the editor of the magazine, it is very useful and not only decorative as most of the other articles stuff.

It was published a couple of years ago in Scrapbook Inspirations.

I used the Cricut Expressions to create the envelopes out of large sized card in increments of half an inch.

The pages inside were left quite plain as i like simplicity.

Just beacuse

... I haven't post any cards lately!

No electricity

So we got the other day a letter informing us that today we would not have electricity. Nice.
So far still we got it, we will see in 10 minutes!

The Goats

No, I haven't got goats, but Dawn has and as I was staying at her house, I took some photos of them. They are so sweet!

Busy, busy

Although I came back home on Monday, I still haven't unpack everything, as I have been really busy and still I am. Loads to do!

Father's day

It should be easy to know when it's fathers Day, right? Well think again. I am Spanish and we celebrate Father's day in March, the nineteenth to be exact which is Saint Joseph's day, but then Omar is Canadian and we live in the UK. So we always forget the exact dates.
But I do know that the UK one is coming sometime soon.
PS: after a bit of research I found out that Fathers Day unlike Mother's Day, is the same in the UK as it is in Canada and the States, is the third Sunday of June.

Butterflies, can't live without them!

I always have loved and used flowers, but there is a limit on how many flowers you can use in your cards. Butterflies, well I liked them but now I love them. It seems that I am in Butterfly mode and almost every card I make lately has got one, or more.
I think this is the card that started this phase in my cardmaking. I made it before Christmas last year as part of an article for the now defunct Quick & Crafty magazine. (I miss that mag, it had a lovely feel to it!)
After this card, there was no looking back: butterfly mania is well established in my studio.

Sending Love from Up North

I made this card a long while ago using Bo Bunny papers and was featured in Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine.

Missing the boys

This weekend I am up North (Lancashire) as I will be teaching at Dawn Bibby's retreat. Fun!
But I will be missing my two boys, no, I haven't got another cat nor Omar has morphed into a cat -although he behaves like one sometimes-. My two boys are Omar and Wasabi, but recently Wasabi has got a new friend with whom he plays and sits in the sun.I guess is a neighbours cat but since we don't know his name we call him Nigiri, which is also a japanese name.
We are still thinking of getting a second cat, I would love a kitten, but we never get round to look for one. But one of these days we will get round to it!

Just for you

This little card I made last weekend while demonstrating the Slice at The Craft Barn. I used two cartridges: Noteworthy for the nested shapes and Basics 2 for the Butterfly. I cut the butterfly out of acetate and use the negative as a mask and inked with cut and dry foam and then stamped on it. Then I used the positive acetate on top.

The O2

I have never been a fan of massive concerts or big shows. It's simply something that I didn't do growing up, provably due to the fact that I enjoy more classical or folk music. But since the O2 has been in full swing my dh has got us a few free tickets and since they are free, well, why not go?
Yesterday we went to see Beyonce. That was a show. there is only a few songs that I actually liked/enjoyed but as a show was really good. And for all the fans of George Michael was extra especial as he came on stage when Beyonce was singing "If I were a boy" and they sang it together.
(I know the photo is not very good, but you can just see that both of them are on stage in the screen on the right hand side.)
The only down side was the tube strike. Silly me I forgot to remind Omar to take with him in the morning my motorbike gear because I couldn't bring it with me -they weight a ton. Usually I can take the tube and get the train back, but our group had hired a bus to get us to the train station due to the tube strike. But so had everyone else at the O2, it took us over an hour to get out of the car park! I missed the last train from Waterloo, and by that time, 1:30 am, I did not fancy walking alone in the empty streets of London so I had to take a black cab home. It did cost me, but then we didn't pay for the tickets and dinner was also included.

Chipboard

Just a sneak peak of my article in this months Cardmaking and Papercraft. It is called ten ways with chipboard!

Ah, the Bigz dies!

As you may know by now, I love die cutting. It is, I think, my area of expertise whether is digital die cutting (Slice and Cricut) or traditional (Big Shot, Cuttlebug and Quickutz). Yes, I do have one of each and love and use each one of them because each one of them is best for a thing!
But when it comes to traditional dies, my heart belongs to the Bigz. Truly. These beasts - there is no other word to call them- are absolutely fabulous. They cut through anything and produce a really nice cut every time.

PS: sorry about the lack of photo but I lost the one I wanted to use! So it's back to the studio.

Craft Barn demo

This is how one part of my table look at the end of Sunday. It was a really busy two days!
The lovely and super talented Francoise Read was there and so were Kay Carley, Carol Cann doing lovely stuff with metal, Julie Hickey was there only on the Saturday but ojh boy did she make lovely cards or what, Sue Roddis whose work I have been admiring for a long time but never met in person before, and many more.

Leandra from Paperartsy was there and, as usual, her work was so inspiring. The picture above shows some of her work displayed on the weekend.

And of course, Sandra Dry was also there with super creations that featured her Kadoodles stamps (find them here).
I took so many more photos of each and every one of the tables, as everyone there is so talented, but as I only had my little camera most of them are not very good. So forgive me for not being able to share.

Basic Grey!

The reason why I got early the Junebug Collection pack is because I did an inspiration spread in June's Basic Grey Newsletter! I did the flowers I had done with the Nestabilities that I talked about in May.
If you know me, you know that I adore Basic Grey, and done so for a long while, so to have one of my projects there is... quite big.
By the way, you can download the newsletter here (bottom left corner) and even subscribe to it so you get it in your email inbox every month here.

The Craft Barn Big Demo

This weekend The Craft Barn is running their yearly June Extravaganza event which is not be missed. There are so many super talented demonstrators that I am not going to list them because they are seventeen of them!
I will be demonstrating the Slice, which I love now. I say now because I need to confess that the first one I got wasn't working properly and thought not very much of it. But as soon as I got another one and the Noteworthy and Basics 2 cartridge, I was totally in love. It is so easy to operate and the shapes are beautiful.

Left overs

Another card done with the left overs that i got after doing a Cuttlebug demo, but I do like it!

Basic Grey Lime Rickey stamps and papers.

Look what I have just got in the post!

Yes, that is right, I got a collection pack of Junebug, I can not wait until I have a good play with it. Love the fact that is double sided so there is plenty of patterns and colors.
The reason why I got it? I will let you know soon!

Hever Castle

Still hurting a bit about yesterday's defeat, but I am so glad it happened. I know it's weird, but after reading what Rafa said in his after the game, I even admire him more!!!!
And, I guess now I know how not to care too much about sports!

Anyway, no card or scrapbooking layout today to share, but this photo of Hever Castle in Kent that I took in May when we visited it with Omar's brother and fiance. By the way, it was just outside the castle that I took the engagement photos that were feautered in the Slice mini album (also shown on QVC). Hever Castle is where Anne Boleyn grew up and as beautiful as might have been then, it was made even lovelier in the early twentieth century by the Astor family who added incredibly amazing Italian Gardens. So if you ever are in the area, go there.