All that Jazz

Ok, so the other week we had International Picture of a Bird Day and, apparently, 30th April is International Jazz Day.  So, that's today's theme over at Make My Monday.  I had to turn to my cricut for the main image but the musical banner was a normal die.

I'm really quite chuffed with the result. Please pop over and join in the fun.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

In a Pickle

 Morning all.  Over at Cardz4galz today we are looking for 'Cute Animals'.  Fabulous, I know exactly where I'm going with this one.  My son and his partner had a puppy in January and it's Libby's birthday coming up. This is going to be ideal.  Here's Pickle:

And here's my Pickle card:

I used my cricut to cut this little cutie out.  I will be adding a happy birthday sentiment but I had to upload this quickly as I'd just started with a migraine that left me in bed for a couple of days.  I'm really hoping Libby likes my Pickle card as much as we love the real thing.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

No Balls Please!

 Morning all.  Over at Cardz4guyz today we are looking for 'no ball sports'.  This is such a good theme for the guyz in your life so I'm expecting a large number of entrants (that means you). This one was so easy for me as my nephew, Charlie, is now old enough to be allowed his first fight.  He's been training as a boxer since he was very young.  We aren't keen on the idea of him fighting to be honest, but the training keeps him fit and disciplined.  It also helped with his appalling eating habits as diet is very important to his fitness. He literally ate nothing but plain chicken and pasta, no sauce, before.

Although we are trying to be supportive of him as he loves the sport, we were a bit relieved when his first opponent backed out of a match.  This is the card I made for him.  I used a cricut cut file and he loved it.

Please pop over and join in the fun.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x 

Remembrance

 Morning all.  For our theme this week over at Cardz4guyz we have 'Poppies/Remembrance'.  It's probably the most suitable way to create a floral card for a guy. I have poppy stamps but decided, once again, to turn to my cricut.

I used a piece of scrap backing paper to go behind the cut image.  I was going to use plain red paper originally but I'm so please with how this one came out.

Please pop over and join in the fun.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

I like big books and I cannot lie!

 OK, today's theme over at Make My Monday  could mean only one thing for me.  We are looking for 'Hobbies' on your projects please.  For me, any time not spent crafting or work is usually spent reading. I have a 'to be read' pile that is so long. When we moved aboard the boat I bought a kindle to save space but I can't help myself when I see a bookshop, charity shop or table top sale. I signed up for two seperate reading challenges this year too. I'm 80% through the first one and 50% through the second.  Reading challenges have introduced me to some wonderful books that I wouldn't have read otherwise.

This is the first time I've used my cricut for a print and cut image.  I went through all the calibration stuff on my machine but ended up fussy cutting it as I didn't want to ruin the image.

OK, let's see what hobbies you all get up to.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

All the 3s and Typically Tropical

 Afternoon all.  Chaos abounds aboard Whisper at the moment.  I've popped on to do today's blog to find that yesterday's blog is missing so, firstly, let's pop over to Make My Monday where we are looking for 'Three of something' on your projects.  I chose to go with 3 squares and also added 3 gems.

I couldn't resist this beautiful paper from The Range - I really must stop going in there!

And now for today's blog challenge.  As it's the 15th of the month we have a new Sparkles Monthly Challenge and we've gone from 'Christmas in July' to 'Tropical or beach themed' in August.  Not that there has been very much tropical about August so far.

I used my cricut again for the hibiscus and, bonus, some scraps from my many paper offcuts.

OK, over to you.  Please join in with us - on both challenges if you can - as we love to see your projects.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

It's a jungle out there

 Morning all.  I was so pleased to see all the gorgeous ice cream cards for my Alphabet Challenge over the last fortnight.  It was so difficult to chose my favourites.  For the next two weeks we have the theme of 'J for Jungle Animals'.  I do have some lovely stamps that would have done for this one but I'm on a mission to use up some paper scraps.  I had a fun piece of colourful zig zag paper sat on my desk that I thought would make a fabulous Kids card.  

I cut the animal faces on my cricut and cut the primary coloured balloons from some normal dies (can't remember the brand but I had them from The Range). I'm so pleased with how it came out.  I'm certainly getting my money's worth out of the cricut since we moved onto the boat.  It's sat on the table and I don't have to dig in my drawers for it so it's getting some hammer.  

Please pop over and check out the challenge.  

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Is it Summer Yet

 Morning all.  Shhh, don't tell anybody but the sun's out in Derbyshire.  Which is quite appropriate as today's challenge at Cardz4galz is 'a summer day'. I've gone a little tropical on you for this one.  Well, summer's been missing in action around here.  We do have lots of trees on the marina but I'm not sure if we've any palm trees.

I cut the silhouette with my cricut in white card as I've run out of black.  I then used an alcohol marker to colour it.  The background is distress oxides and a bit of white gel pen.  I really wasn't sure I was doing the right thing with this one but I persevered  and I'm so please with the end result.  OK, let's see what summer is doing your end.

Thanks for reading

Love Dawn x

Oops, I did it again!

 When you are miles away from your computer and you realise that, not only have you forgotten to schedule yesterday's blog post, you've forgotten your own themed challenge.  So, without any further ado, here is yesterday's Alphabet Challenge card.

I'd chosen 'I for Ice Cream' as my theme and I'm pretty chuffed with this one.  I used my Cricut to cut out the ice cream and the sentiment.  I love the bright patterned papers and I think they worked ok for the different flavours.  I covered them with a little sparkle pen to really make it tasty.

Please pop over and show me your ice creams.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Winter, brrr or grrr

 So I'm running behind with my DT projects this week and to top things off we are two short in the office and I ended up doing extra hours tonight to finish a project.  I'm on my own tomorrow (congratulations to Jade on your Graduation) so I know I've got to finish a card today.  We have W for Winter over at The Alphabet Challenge and I have been planning a lovely card with a digistamp of a robin on it.  Well, I got home and decided that I didn't have enough time to colour an image so I would cut something on my cricut.

Well, after several failed attempts and a codging together of some glitter paper, I may as well have coloured the image.

I wish I had matted the layers and I wish I had a brighter backing paper but, considering the frustration I've had  I'm OK with the result.  I'll take another look when I've had a gin and I'm sure I will be much happier.

Please pop over and inspire us with your winter cards.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Love it Guyz

 Morning all.  With Valentine's day around the corner we have  a 'Love' theme over at Cardz4guyz today.  Don't you find that Love is a hard one for fellas.  Well, if you need any inspiration pop over and see.  The DT have a wide and varied selection for you.  So, what do my guyz love more than me.  Well, for the OH it would be coffee.  But for my son it's probably sport.  I think I come in behind football for both of them.  So, here's what I came up with.

The main motif is a cricut file and I just thought it was perfect.  They do a rugby one too (or it maybe American Football).  To be honest I think either would have be ok for No 1 son.

OK, let's see what you can come up with for the men in your life.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

I'm H.A.P.P.Y.

 Morning all.  Time for a new letter over at The Alphabet Challenge.  We are at H, and H is for 'Happy'.  I reverted, once again, to the Cricut for my card.

I love black and gold together - I'm a New Orleans Saints fan and they play in black and gold.  I think they look so classy. The colours, not the Saints!  I'm really pleased with this one.

OK, there are lots of 'Happy' occasions for you to choose from so please pop over and join the fun.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Outdoor fun

 Morning all, again.  A new challenge starts today over at Sparkles Monthly Challenge.  'Outdoor fun' is our new theme so you can guarantee that it will start to rain.  I've mentioned before that, due to my wrists being in splits, I have been using my cricut more often.  I found a brilliant cut file of a guy with a barbecue.  It should have been easy to cut and assemble.  However, in my wisdom I chose to cut all the pieces in white and colour them.  So much for keeping it simple to save the pain.

I am pretty chuffed with how he came out though.  It was worth putting a little more effort in.  It's a sort of blessing in disguise really as, before my wrist problems, I would never have tried a cut file like this. I tend to use just words or backgrounds.  I might get a bit more value from my cricut access subscription now I can see what I'm capable of doing with these sorts of files.

Please pop over to the blog and show us your ideas of outdoor fun.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

Green and Gold for Luck

 Morning all.  My blog posts are coming thick and fast this week.  I promise, I will let you off over the weekend.  Over at The Alphabet Challenge we are up to the letter G. Meg has chosen the colour combo 'Green and Gold'.  As I mentioned yesterday, my Cricut machine is getting a hammering lately due to pain in my wrists and arms.  It turned into a bit of a blessing really as I would never have attempted anything quite so intricate as this.

The pattern is a Cricut one and has about seven layers.  I'm really impressed with how it turned out.  It's so big I had to put it on an 8x8 card base.  I love the green and gold combination and a friend has just given me a lovely green and gold mug with my initial on.  I'd love to see how you used the colours in your projects.  Please pop over and join in the Challenge.

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x

SnowflakeS

 I'm back again this morning with another new challenge card.  This time we want to see more than one snowflake on your projects over at Sparkles Christmas Challenge.  Now, as I have splints on my wrists at the moment I have found that I am making more use of my Cricut to create my DT cards. I had tried, last year, to cut an intricate snowflake design on my machine but I obviously had the settings wrong and it just etched the design on my card instead of cutting. However, I loved how it looked so I thought I would give it a go on some silver mirror card.  

Best laid plans and all that.  It cut the pattern beautifully!  Oh well.  Stick some glitter card behind it, ram a few smaller snowflakes on the front and add a sentiment.  There you go.  One snowflakes card.

Please pop over and join in the fun.  I'm always looking for inspiration for Christmas cards. 

Thanks for reading.

Love Dawn x