Cupboard Trilogy Design

January's design on 'The Cupboard Trilogy' was 'Anything Goes'. The Design Team made a project of their own choice and the challenge was to do your own take on it whilst keeping the same layout. 

I did a card for my son's 18th as my DT entry.  I had planned on posting this whilst the challenge was still active but due to being unwell I've only just got to being able to sort it.  Of course that means I'm feeling a fair bit better now which makes me smile! 

I will hopefully be blogging a bit more often if my health allows. I have a crafting weekend coming up so should certainly have a lot to report from that! 

See you soon my lovelies.

Karen x

AWOL

If my husband had disappeared for as long as I have from my blog when he was in the Army, he'd be in jail! Luckily I'm not in such trouble although I apologise for my absence. 

Here's my DT card for December!

Since I last blogged I have had the privilege of being invited to join The Cupboard Trilogy Design Team, which runs a monthly challenge with a badge award for your blog for top DT pick and a random generator picks a winner for a small prize.

It's a fun challenge with some lovely examples by the talented DT ladies. 

This month the challenge is titled Frosty Winter. Take a look at the website to see what it's all about and join in the fun if you fancy.

http://thecupboardtrilogychallenges.blogspot.co.uk

Apparently Christmas is coming!

It seems that no matter how much you bury your head in the mistletoe, Christmas still arrives in December every year! If you make your own Christmas cards, you really need to start earlier than October but for me this is positively early and may even mean I manage to make more than just two cards this year! I've always been rather put out at the materialism of the festive season causing decorations to appear in the shops earlier every year. However, I have realised that you do need to acknowledge it earlier than December if you want some homemade elements!

I've seem some people in the crafting world make a point of creating 5 cards a month throughout the year and may even adopt this policy next year myself, but this year alas I've actually only just made my second card! I had better get a move on and make it at least 3 by the end of today!

My First Swaps

There was a Stampin' Up Demonstrator/New Demo Interest training evening in Ipswich last Wednesday, run by Marisa and Becki, which I unfortunately wasn't able to make.  Today I'm meeting Marisa for our own little meeting which will, I'm sure, be every bit as nice. And in Costa too!  So I'm putting a picture on here of the first ever swap that I've made.  It's very simple but, I think, quite sweet! However, at the moment, the picture just isn't looking very good on my blog.  I promise it looks much nicer in real life!!!!

I'll add pictures of the three swaps Marisa was able pick up for me when I get home.  I'll also be in possession of the little pack of papers they used for the makes they did on the evening, so I'm looking forward to having a little play!!!

See you later x x

Ladies that Craft!

Thirteen lovely ladies, lots of paper, lots of glue, lots of punches, stamps and ink but most of all, lots of fun!

 

Thursday saw my sixth month at Ransomes Sports & Social Club for crafting.  In reality I can't call it a card class as a few ladies spend their time Scrapbooking! The one thing we all do equally is have a lovely time together. I had 12 ladies this month, being the most in one night, plus a VIP guest. Saskia is 7 years old and very clearly takes after her Nanny Janice as she's very talented, very lovely and very well behaved. Ok, well 2 out of the 3 are like her Nanny but I'm not going to publicly announce which ones they are! I leave that to your imagination!!!

Karen, where are you?

Well yes, I admit I have been missing from this blog for far too long but I haven't been missing from my craft room! And rather pleasantly, my craft room is really quite cool, with the exception of the halogen lamp I have to use so I can see enough (does anyone know where I can get a reasonable priced daylight lamp that doesn't throw out enough heat to put the sun out of business?!).

Anyway, the Stampin Up new Autumn Winter catalogue is in my hands along with a couple of the pre-release items available to us Stampin Up Demonstrators. Well there has to be a perk or two doesn't there?! So having had a play with 'one' of my favourites, I've produced a pretty little card that I thought I'd post for you to see!

The stamp set is called Perfectly Preserved but I've only used 2 of the 14 stamps in it! The papers are from a discontinued set of dsp called Pocketful of Posies. Rich Razzleberry and Bashful Blue are the colours I've pulled in along with Whisper White.

Pop Up Wedding Card

I delivered my first wedding card order last night. I used the beautiful Love & Laughter stamp with the Craft Whisper White ink pad on velum and Pear Pizzazz card stock. As you can see I also made use of the Confetti and Tiny Tags stamps.  I was very pleased with the results and hope my lovely customer, Jo was as well! (Please excuse the picture quality, the envelope seems to be obscuring the view of the base of the card, was taken in haste as we left to deliver on our way to an excellent Shakespeare play at Woodbridge High School) 

June 2012 Card Class

"Please Miss!" "Janice there really is no need to put your hand up!"

 Apparently, according to my husband, its impossible to get a picture of me with my mouth closed! I Have no idea what he means, I'm sure!  Last evenings card class was lots of fun and the ladies seemed to be very pleased with the outcome of all their hard work; there were lots of happy smiling faces as you can see below!

Nice layouts Bex!

My Layout!

Bex came up with some great layouts with the scrapping kit; very imaginative! I'm looking forward to seeing what they look like with photos on them!   I like to bring a nice selection of stamps and punches so that the scrappers can get even more creative, Bex was very excited about the Cupcake and Owl Punches!  Here you can see my take on the kit to help with inspiration.  Sarah did a similar layout to mine and it looked fab!  When I look at the picture on my layout it always makes me wonder where all the time has gone to!  Scrapping gives me so much pleasure and I always enjoy my escapes to Create and Co to do my own! 

If you would like to see the cards we made at this card class please visit my facebook page on the link on the left side of the blog! (If you look carefully you can see them below with Janice's and Nicola's beautiful makes!) Left is a close up of some of the stamp work using stamps from various sets (see labels below) to create this wonderful collage which I was really pleased with! 

Janice and Nicola

I can't wait 'til the next Card Class; I do love seeing all the lovely ladies, and we do have such a good laugh too! 

Rachel, Bex and Lizzie

The Country Celebrates my Brothers '40th'

A Picture from the TV

Baby Bearded Dragon

See what happens when your birthday coincides with the Queen; everyone else celebrates your birthday too!!!  I couldn't resist staying in theme with this Union Jack card, although I'm not convinced that the Queen will have been given any dragons for her birthday! Here is a picture of the little baby Bearded Dragon lizard we gave my brother as his birthday present.  My mum was very relieved that he doesn't live at home any more and that the lizard will not be staying at hers as they used to when he was younger!

(Did you spot the 'Parlour Prints' stamp embossed onto the 'Not Quite Navy' card stock?)

A Special Friend's Birthday Card.

My wonderful friend Emily had her birthday on Saturday and I had a lovely time on Friday afternoon making a special card for her.  She loves dots, as you would easily work out if you saw the accessories in her beautiful home - lots of red dots, or multicoloured dots everywhere.  Perhaps that's why we get on as I have been known to be called Dotty myself!  Anyway, I thought I'd put a picture of the card up now that Emily has received it.

'Cool' @ 42 Birthday!

Making the most of the football being on, I've grabbed the opportunity to get some extra crafting time in! Here is a layout of pictures from my birthday earlier this month using a mixture of my Scrapagogo kits (plus my own black doilie). I created a film strip with the June kits stamp and thought the letter set blended in nicely with the colour of the paper which also matched perfectly with the orange from the Ice Cream logo.

I felt very decadent drinking a glass of wine at lunchtime at The Waterfront Bistro & Bar (centre picture)!  After a wonderful meal with Paul we met the boys and headed off to one of my favourite places, The Little Ice Cream Company on Felixstowe Sea Front, for dessert. 

Later that evening I blew out candles on a cake that Joshua had bought me.  Not having the right numbers for the candles he turned the '5' back to front which apparently is the same as a '2'!  I'm not so sure but was very touched by the thoughtfulness, fun and kindness!

Below are the little 4x4 thank you cards I made for the lovely gifts I received! I absolutely love the Stampin' Up! 'Pedal Presents' bike and the 'Up Up and Away' balloons stamps; hopefully the card recipients will too!  As usual the quality of the stamps and inks are outstanding!

Card Class at Ransomes Sports and Social Club 31st May 2012

A display of all the kits and personalised sweetie boxes!

Sorry this is a bit late in coming but here we are with last months Card Class pictures.  I thought this time I would show you the prepared kits all ready and willing to go!  As you can see I decided to go along with the rest of the nation and do it in 'Jubilee' style!  The Union Jack was made up with so many strips I thought it might get confusing but as you can see below there were no such problems!  I gave my ladies some creative freedom so that they could use the same kit but vary their results; again below shows how good that can turn out!

I used mostly materials from the summer mini but had to adapt to get all I needed together for the Celebrate card.  On the blue background to the flag I used the Parlour Prints stamp in craft white and heat embossed using the cherry scented embossing powder from the summer mini; very effective I thought!  

I love to mess about with my punches and it is amazing how versatile they can be.  Using the Blossom punch and cutting off two of the petals you get a cool little butterfly!  I used a brad from the antiques pack to hold it in place!  The Blossom punch was also used to create the layered flower on the pop up card.  Again using different colours and papers the results were all unique!

The ladies loved having some sweets to nibble at to get the creative juice flowing!  Starburst will do that for you!!!  I'm really loving the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch.  It is very effective as an alternative to actual ribbon and looks great wrapped around the little personnalised (using the Timeless Type Junior Alphabet) boxes (made with the Bigz Scallop Square Clear die and scored on the Simply Scored Scoring Tool) made for the sweeties.  Try saying that after a glass or two of wine!!!!!

These two lovelies were created by Nicola as variations using the same kits!  It is always a delight to see what people come up with using their own imagination!

First Card Class at Ransomes Sports & Social Club - Summer Mini

These lovelies are Nicola's creations from the evening!

Lorraine, very pleased!

 

Bex, Rachael, Maggie and Jo

This Class was going to be a trial run held in the bar at Ransomes Sports and Social Club but in the event I had 10 lovely ladies come along so it was a good thing that we were given a great side room instead as it was polling day and the bar was a little busy!

The Scrappers!

We arrived and started to set up and before we knew it all the ladies had arrived and it was all go! Tracey and Dawn prefer to scrapbook so I prepared a little package each for them with papers, ribbons and embellishments and they were thrilled!  I was amazed at what they had come up with, Tracey having completed almost 4 layouts in the two hours with Dawn not far behind! Not so for Mike, who had bought them along, and Paul who took all that time enjoy a pint of beer in the bar, escaping from all us crazy ladies!

It looks chaotic, but creativeness is like that!

Jo Hard at Work

We had a wide range  of experience levels at the class from absolute beginners to expert and all made fantastic cards to take home with them.  It is very rewarding to see someone who has never made a card before to go away with

Lorraine, Sandra, Janice, Tracey and Dawn

something good enough to send to someone!

Everyone seemed to have a good time and some have already booked their places on the next one on 31st May.  If you would like to come along please contact me by email on karencurd@hotmail.co.uk or at Facebook via the link.  

Check out Nicola's Blog entries of the event by following links below!

The Cards :)

As promised here's a peek of the cards we made last night ...

A (Card) Class Act !

Last night was Stampin' Up! Card Class with the lovely Karen Curd, Janice, Lorraine, Sandra and I spent a couple of hours making cards and thoroughly enjoying ourselves , I was especially pleased to be out on a school night !!!

 I received my monthly kit this morning from Scrapagogo and should by rights use it for my full day and evening crafting at Create & Co tomorrow.  But ........... I just couldn't resist having a little play!!!!  And such fun I had.  Sadly, my mobile phone just doesn't do the gorgeous papers justice.  Or the picture of the very special Annie, Martha and Scarlett.  Three very wonderful little ladies that I love very much indeed!  Anyway, this is the layout I came up with from the April Blueprint.  I filled the gorgeous jar with hearts and glitter (also known as fairy dust!).  Again, this doesn't show up on the picture.  I'm hoping to get a nice camera for my birthday that will take much clearer pictures.  Roll on June!

Cupcake Birthday!

I haven't managed to get very much crafting done over the past week but I have made the cards I needed, both for a new Grandaughter for our friends and a 40th birthday card for another friend.  I'm going to deliver the 40th card tonight but am safe posting it as Lin doesn't come on my blog!  I cased the 40th card from the wonderful and addictive Pinterest.  For the new baby card I have used some of my stamps from the new Summer Mini, so you can't actually get hold of these until 1st May! On the other hand, the 40th card features the Cupcake Punch, which is in the Spring mini and will only be available until the 30th April.  If you would like to order one of these punches or anything else in the Spring Mini do give me a call or drop me an email as soon as possible!  The Cupcake Punch is another really versatile punch and I'm so glad I decided to get it.  The top of the cupcake makes wonderful clouds and the base makes a nice little basket and also a handbag.  I'll make the cards up and display them over the next few days.  I'll do a cupcake punch display, just like I did with the owl display!  Well, time to get ready to go and visit the birthday girl, so cheerio for now!

Liebster Award - Pay It Forward!

I had a lovely surprise yesterday from the lovely Nicola, who is responsible for the brilliant blog MyLittlePaperHouse.  She awarded my KarenLouiseCrafts Blog a Liebster blog award. What an honour!

Apparently Liebster I have now found out is a German word meaning beloved or dearest, so I am really  flattered to have been awarded it.

The honour of accepting the award is traditionally done in the following way:
1. show thanks to the blogger who awarded you by linking back to their blog
2. choose 5 blogs with less than 200 followers and let them know about your nomination by leaving a comment on their blog
3. post the award on your blog!

So here are the names of  blogs that I LOVE to visit, I hope you will enjoy visiting them too, and maybe even become a follower, if like me you like what you see!

1. Lydia
2. Terri
3. Bumblebee
4. Jane

5.Loraine Arderne

I hope you pop by these lovely blogs and show these Ladies some appreciation for all their lovely creations.

Once again a big thank you to Nicola.  I really appreciate it xx

CARD CLASS NUMERO UNO!

First card; Creative Elements

3 Scallops of Ice Cream, and a cherry please!

When I first booked Popins Tea Rooms with Margaret for my first card class, it felt like it was so far ahead in the future, but as always, I'm looking back on it as if it was ages ago already.  My, how time flies when you have fun! Whilst I had planned on being so well organised and spent an entire week crafting before hand, it seems that I spent more time playing and making cards to sell than I did on actually planning the cards we would make at the class.  I was determined I wasn't going to be up late, but alas, as Paul and I fell into bed at 2.30am, I was wondering how on earth I would manage to get my head off the pillow again the next morning.  But excitement got the better of me and I was up and ready to go in plenty of time!

 

Four punches, 2 Stamps!

I had three lovely ladies come along to the class and a lovely little lady too!  We ended up in the actual cafe upstairs instead of in the cellar as planned as there were only 4 of us;  usually Margaret at Popins is very quiet on a Friday afternoon but on this occasion it was quite busy.  At one point we had to move our things  from a spare table to make room for some folks requiring refreshment of the coffee variety making for a lovely atmosphere with the buzz of chatter and light banter.  There was plenty of coffee, tea and chatter from our tables too and everyone left rather happy with their makes.

I came home to a Mr UPS missed parcel card - disaster - until I read it and saw that my very kind neighbours had taken it in for me! All my new goodies from the new Summer Mini Catalogue were here and ready to get me inspired for my next card class!  I've not had a chance to play yet as it has been Paul's long weekend off and we've spent time together rather than me off crafting the whole time.  My next class is booked and planning in process (earlier this time!)!  Check out my card class page for more information and do contact me if you would like to book yourself a place. 

Twit Twoohoo - Owl Fun

Am loving the Woodgrain Stamp!!!

Peek-a-boo!!!

Fun Party Owl!!!

Versat-owl

 I've had a lovely couple of days playing with paper, stamps and punches and come up with these woodgrain owl cards, ready to go to Poppins Teashop.  I've added  a couple of other owl cards I made previously, which you may have already seen in previous entries, but it certainly shows some of the possibilities with the owl punch.  If you add to that the fact that the owl punch can be used for a huge amount of other punch art things, it certainly is pretty versatile and fun!  I'll add a couple of pictures of what can be made from the punch.  If you would like to purchase the owl punch, or indeed anything else from the Stampin' Up brochure please do contact me by email.  The owl punch is £18.95. If you'd like to see a full brochure let me know or check out the Stampin Up website!

Romantic Owls!!!

Educated Little Owls!!!

Do please leave a comment and let me know what you think!