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!

My First Event, Make & Take Shotley

The three design choices to Make and Take!

Well, I've had my first event, held in Shotley Village Hall!  It wasn't very busy at first but like buses, you wait for an age and then they all come at once!  Emma, my upline came along to loan me lots of samples and some moral support, along with the gorgeous Kiera, who made the very first card of the day! And very good it was too!  Then we had a few hours of just Paul and I so we spent the time making cards ourselves.  We really enjoyed it - Paul was very proud of his achievements - including one for our Sister-In-Law's birthday at the end of this month!

Relaxed ready and waiting!

Card packs, stamps and punches all organised and good to go!

Some fine examples!

At 6pm the Cubs and Beavers arrived in the main hall for their joint end of term meeting.  Alex, who is a helper as she's a teenager on 1st April and too old for Cubs, came in and made all three cards.  She is a pretty talented crafter and I've got her in my sights for an assistant role in the future!!!! ;-)

As the Cubs and Beavers finished at 7.30pm we had an influx (yep, those buses in the form of little people all arrived at once).  It was in at the deep end all of a sudden and  we got straight to helping as some rather lovely creations came into being! The leaders all made a card too and we are looking forward to getting a picture from Heather once she has added some  finishing touches at home with some special inks that she has.

Once we had cleared up, Paul handed back the keys and paid for the hall hire whilst I ordered us a couple of the newly available takeaway pizzas from Peninsular Pizzeria (01473 787949).  We highly recommend them!!  We think we are grateful to Manesh for opening this takeaway in our village just in time for us (but then again, perhaps it's a little toooo convenient!).  Anyway, the boys were more than ready to help us devour the pizzas as we arrived home at 9.30pm! And all we were fit for was to collapse for what remained of the evening!

Getting some one to one!

Nice Job Alex!

All proud of their achievements!

Crop Day tomorrow! Yippee!

I'm really looking forward to my crop day tomorrow at Martlesham. If I was there from start to finish, I could actually get 12.5 hours crafting time in. Well, a little allowance has to be made for chatting, eating and tea making but you must agree there's a pretty decent amount of cropping going to be happening tomorrow! I've attached a picture of the page I did of my lovely lovely friend Lys, using a mixture of some now retired Stampin' Up papers and other odds and ends from my stash. It's one of my favourite pages! I'll add some pictures of what I do tomorrow sometime soon, so long as I achieve more crafting than talking and laughing!

Here is a double spread I did at my scrapettes weekend in Norfolk.

All work with no play is oh so dull!

A bit [of] distressing!

I've been collating the kits and putting them in their cellos this morning and just need to collect the envelopes from my lovely upline Emma tomorrow whilst we have a totally wonderful day at our 12 hour crop. It's playtime for all 12  wonderful hours with lovely ladies, amazing kits and bucket loads of inspiration! But I need to get organised with what I'm taking. You need a lot of kit to choose from when you're there for that long!  Today is about preparation for Tuesday's Make & Take though. Preparation is the better word choice for me as organisation isn't quite so appropriate when I look at the jumble before me. You'll have seen what I can see from the photo.

Organised Chaos!!!

Anyway, I just needed to have a little play too as it's just not on to work with no playtime for ten minutes. I learnt that a long time ago in primary school and I still like the idea!

So the play produced this little lovely using the gorgeous Spice Cake Designer Series Paper, along with More Mustard Card Stock, More Mustard and Soft Suede stamp pads and the Tiny Tags, Triple Treat Flower stamps. I also used 5-Petal Flower, Fancy Flower and Tiny Tags Punches. All on a base of Naturals Ivory card stock! Sounds like a Marks & Spencer advert! It's not just any craft stock, it's Stampin' Up craft stock!

Need to crack on if I'm to stand a chance of having everything together in time for Tuesday lunch time. See you soon!

Poppins Teashop in Holbrook

These four cards are currently for sale along with 10 more in Poppins, Holbrook.  Margaret, who runs the teashop is very supportive and has invited me to use the shop for card classes.  My first date for Holbrook is Friday 13th April at 1pm.  Do contact me if you would like to join us as numbers are limited! There will be a charge for the class but you will have the opportunity to make 3 or 4 cards, depending on how much time you spend crafting compared to consuming tea or coffee and wonderful cupcakes!! If you'd like to book a place please call me on 07772 847353. Or you can drop me an email at karencurd@gmail.com.