Here comes 2009 !

Well I can't believe it but here we are again on the threshold of a New Year. I hope you are doing something that you are looking forward to this evening. I have to admit New Year is never my favourite celebration, I'm usually quite happy to sit in my house watching Jools Holland on the TV. This year we are spending the evening with good friends at their home so the taxis are already booked to get us there and back..lets hope they turn up!!

I find New Year a time when I tend to feel a little sad, looking back on a year and having to say goodbye to it. 2008 has been a very busy year here at Funky Hand Towers with lots of highs. Like live and recorded TV shows on Ideal World, releasing downloadable collections for the first time, getting together my wonderful Design Team, releasing Now that's Funky and Funky Daze CD collections. There have been a few lows as well like my few health problems but the highs very much out weigh them!!

At this time of year everyone is coming up with New Year resolutions so I'm not going to be left out! Perhaps if I list them here publicly I might keep them.. ha ha how likely is that?

1. Lose some weight (this is a permanent list leader!!)
2. Spend more time with my friends and family.
3. Don't leave everything to the last moment.
4. Plan ahead rather than react when things happen!
5. Blog more regularly.

There are loads more but I don't want you to fall asleep before you finish reading this post!

Oh, before I sign off I thought I would mention that the shows that I recorded for Create and Craft TV have started running this week, I didn't expect them to until the new year but, tomorrow (Thursday 1st Jan) if you are sitting in front of the TV at 12noon getting over the excesses of this evening have a look at the Create and Craft Channel I'll be there demonstrating cards made with my Funky Seasons CD.

Have a wonderful New Year and thanks for dropping by here in 2008. Next year is going to be a goody!!

Speak again soon..
Anice xx

Funky Hand New Year SALE !

I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas time. I know we have here at Funky Hand Towers! As usual we have eaten FAR too much but we have laughed and smiled loads with friends and family and that's what it is all about! To keep those smiles going for a little longer we decided that a bit of a New Year sale would be in order so..if you pop over to our website www.funkyhand.com you will find that there is a fantastic 10% discount on everything across the store for seven whole days!! That's on all our craft CD Roms, including our newest release Funky Daze,our fabby downloadable paper collections and funky acid free printed paper packs. As usual there is FREE postage and packing to anywhere in the world so why not grab yourself a little after Christmas bargain and keep a little bit of that Christmas sparkle going on into the new year.

See you over there!
Anice xx

Well it's almost here!

I used to love Christmas time. As soon as the lights started going on in the shops in October (!) I would start planning my wrapping paper colours for that year and making a list of gifts to buy. Lately I feel like Christmas creeps up on me and suddenly it's here and I'm not prepared at all. I wonder if it because I am so much more busy running Funky Hand than when I worked full time as an office Manager or as I am getting older I am becoming an old grouch?! I hope it's the first reason as we already have one Christmas Scrouge living in this house, Ian really isn't a Christmas lover! Hence the pleasant Christmas wishes on this post, I am trying to get into the spirit before it's too late!!

I have lots of things flying round in my head at the moment some I can't tell you about just yet..but keep an eye out here and I'll spill the beans soon. Others are all signed and sealed. I will be presenting a live show on Ideal World Shopping Channel on 27th January at 11am where I will be premiering my latest craft CD Rom Funky Daze. I'm really looking forward to sharing the fabby cards that my Design Team have been creating and showing everyone just how easy it is to create your own word books using the CD. Of course I haven't started on the demonstrations just yet..you know me I have to leave everything to the last moment to create the maximum stress levels possible!!

I am looking forward to a few days off over Christmas but I imagine it will be just a few as Ian seems to have a very large list of 'Things to be done over Christmas' whilst he is on holiday from his full time job. Though some of them are rather exciting.. all will be revealed in time but I am pretty excited about 2009 already!!

If I don't get back here again before Christmas have a wonderful time with your families and I hope Father Christmas brings you all the lovely crafty stash you have asked for!!

Anice xx

Christmas is coming.. far too quickly!

I can't believe that it's only nine days till Christmas day! I am terribly disorganised this year... and I really can't tell you why! All the presents are bought but I still haven't finished making my cards. I have to admit here..we are going to buy some cards tonight as I just don't have time to make all of them. I am so ashamed!

I have made some though so I will prove it to you by showing them to you!





I used papers from my two Christmas download collections, Funky Little Christmas and Funky Christmas Time. It was the least I could do really!!
Though I say I'm not sure why I am so behind with my Christmas prep I do have one reason..unfortunately I was ill again last week and had another rather nasty seizure. I'm in touch with my Neuro who is looking into making changes to my Epilepsy medication..woohoo what fun!

On the positive side of things my Funky Hand Design Team have had some reasons to celebrate. First up on Sunday it was Jozzas birthday. I know she had a wonderful day spent with her family, which was fully deserved as she is such a special lady.

The second exciting thing that has happened is that Kath won Card Maker of the Year for Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine. I am so thrilled for her and bursting with pride. She has won a enormous collection of crafty stash (unfortunately she has won some Funky Hand CDs as I was one of the sponsors of the competition, I told her to do what she likes with them as she already has the whole collection!) which she is offering some of as fabby blog candy gifts so get yourself over to her blog and check out whats available! Not only does she win lots of lovely stash but she also gets to join the design team for the magazine so expect to see some wonderful creations from our Kath in print!

Right I can't hang around here as I still have more Christmas stuff to try to organise and there are still orders to process to. Hopefully I'll be back before Christmas but just incase I'm not my best wishes to you all.
Anice xx

December is here already!

It's been a busy week again this week, I feel like that's how I always start my blog posts lately.. note to self, think of something new to say next time!

On Monday I was at the Ideal World/Create and Craft studios recording shows for four of my CD-Roms, It's Funky Too, Funky Seasons, V Funky and Now that's Funky. It was a long but enjoyable day, that was mainly down to the lovely presenters that I had to work with. Nigel and Stephanie were great and made a pretty stressful situation fun. I'm not sure when the shows will be put into the TV schedule, sometime in the new year I imagine. When I know, I'll let you know.

My new CD Funky Daze is proving to be pretty popular with my crafty customers, I know this because of all the wonderful emails I have been receiving from you all. Thank you so much for your positive comments I appreciate every one of them. If you have purchased Funky Daze or any of my other CD roms or download collections I would love to see pictures of your creations. Email them to me on support@funkyhand.com and I'll share them here with everyone else!

You know it was my 40th birthday last week..well thankfully I'm not the only one making that momentous age move..Ians brother Steve is also joining me in a few days time. As he lives in the US I had to get his card made and in the post as soon as possible so that was my job on Tuesday.



I have to admit I haven't created anything using my CD rom It's Funky Too for ages so after working with it on Monday at Ideal World I was inspired to get printing from it for Steves card. I used the Khaki colour collection which I thought would work better for a mans card. The ribbon is from my stash and the 'Today' sentiment are All mixed up Doodlebug rub ons in Beetle Black. I hope he likes it!

I have to admit something..I haven't even started to work on my Christmas cards yet! So that is the next job to be moved to the top of the list of things to do. How bad would it be for me to buy my Christmas cards this year? I don't think my friends and family would forgive me so I'd best get on with it.

Oh, last thing before I let you go..one of my lovely Design Team members, Ruth, is celebrating 5000 hits on her blog with some very tasty crafty blog candy. Get yourselves over there and get involved to have a chance of a nice surprise coming through the post. Find her blog here TipTop Toppers Things Blog.

Right that's it for today, speak again soon.

Anice xx

Busy, Busy, Busy!

What a busy week I have had! With my birthday party last weekend, launching my new craft CD Funky Daze on Monday, my 40th Birthday Tuesday and then trying to pull everything together for the four recorded shows I am filming with Create and Craft on Monday coming, my poor head is in a spin!

The launch of Funky Daze has been fantastic! Thank you very much to everyone who has visited the website, sent messages and of course purchased the new CD. I am so honored that you lovely crafters have taken the time to give me your feedback and spent your hard earned crafting cash with us. I appreciate everyone of you. Thank you.

One of the most popular things on this new release has turned out to be the Word Books that you can print yourself. I thought I would share my first one with you which I made as a joke after I had initially designed the pages to see if they would actually work!

When I was a little girl, with a name like 'Anice' I could never have anything with my name on it. You remember when you had one of those ceramic tiles that went on your bedroom door with 'You name's Bedroom' and a picture of a car or a flower on it. Maybe if you are a youngster you wont remember this is the mid to late 70's I'm talking about..anyway. My brother Gary had his on his door but I always had to have GIRLS bedroom, because you couldn't get Anice of course and there was no such thing as getting them hand made specially! This obviously was a big deal to me..as I am still talking about it now 30 years later!!



(reads 'Once upon a time a long time ago....)



(..there was a girl born who was given an unusual name.No one could ever remember what it was and no one could ever spell it. The worst of all the girl could never get anything special, like a mug, with her name on it. She always had to have GIRL instead. It wasn't until many years later that she found a way to change this forever...)




(Learn 2 craft and make it Yourself!)

There I've got it off my chest!!!
Speak to you all again soon.
Anice xx

Hurrah ! two reasons for me to celebrate.

Hello everyone!

I'm in rather a good mood today for two reasons. The first one is..it's my birthday! Though I probably shouldn't feel that happy as I am turning 40 years old. I've received loads of fabby cards and presents and I'll pop back over the next couple of days and share the lovely cards that I have received and thank everyone properly.

The second reason for my good mood today is that I have finally launched my brand new shiny craft CD Rom Funky Daze. I thought I would share a few of the wonderful cards that my Design Team members have been frantically making for me ready for launch..this is just a small sample of the wonderful work they have produced. Pop over to my website www.funkyhand.com and take a look at the gallery for Funky Daze to see everything they have been creating.

















How lucky am I having such talented Design Team members?

Now I'm off to have a fun day to celebrate my 'life beginning' as I keep being told by well meaning friends !

Speak again soon
Anice xx

Oh dear my birthday party..

It's not my birthday until Tuesday so last night when I had all my friends around to my house I was just celebrating that I am still 39! Yes I am not particularly happy that I will be 40 on the 25th but there's nothing to be done about it so I decided to have a few friends round to eat, drink and be merry. Now I did over do the 'merry' part I think as I have had rather a headache all day but it was lovely to have all my friends with me to celebrate. The only problem I discovered this morning is that I don't actually have any photographs of my friends at my party! I'm going to share a couple of photos I do have but it looks like I was all alone..I promise I wasn't!! Hopefully other people will let me have copies of their pictures which may actually look like there was a party going on!!

Here's me before everyone arrived and before I had a drink!



and the dreadful moment when I had to have a room full of people sing happy birthday and blow out my candles..



It was a really fun night and it's times like that, that remind me what wonderful friends I have. Even if I can't show them too you!!

Things have been the usual busy around here..I do have a new CD to launch but there was a little hiccup with the manufacturers earlier in the week, which I wont bore you with! I am crossing my fingers that I will be back here on Tuesday telling you all about Funky Daze and that it will be available. I can't wait to share the wonderful creations that the Funky Hand Design Team have made with the new collections..they are totally inspirational as ever.

Even though it's my birthday I will be pretty busy this week as I have alot of card making demos to pull together ready for my visit to the Create and Craft studios on December 1st. I will be spending a day there recording four half hour shows, one each for my craft CDs It's Funky Too, Funky Seasons, V Funky and Now that's Funky. I'm really looking forward to doing them and I imagine they will be added to the Create and Craft schedules in the new year. I'll let you know more details when I have them.

Oh finally before I leave you this post I must send my best wishes to Enfys from my DT..it's her birthday today. I hope you have had a lovely day En.

Well I hope you have enjoyed your weekend as much as I have enjoyed mine..speak again soon.

Anice xx

Scrapping Exhibition memories

Here I am again saying sorry for the length of time between my posts. Sorry (head down in shame..again!) It's a bit busy here at Funky Hand Towers as we get ready for the launch of the new CD Funky Daze, preparing for TV shows and exhibitions. I now have a delivery date for the CD so..we are racing to get everything ready for the launch on the website. As soon as I have a confirmed launch date I will share it with you here.

Hopefully Funky Daze will be something you will want to add to your crafty Christmas list.

Even though it's pretty busy here I still have to find time to do a bit of crafting dont' I?..or what's life worth eh??! So here is an 8"x8" scrap page I created from scrapbook papers included on the new CD.



It's quite a simple page but I wanted to scrap my memories from the trade exhibition that I did early in the year. It's a picture of me waiting nervously on the stand just before the show opened on the first day. The 'Exhibitor' sign is from inside the badge I am wearing in the picture and the ribbon with the exhibition name on was cut from the ribbon on the badge that is holding it around my neck. The title lettering is also from the CD and the small lettering is Doodlebug All Mixed Up rub-ons.

Right.. can't hang around I have orders to process and more demonstrations to try to design. Talk again real soon.

Anice xx

My crafty customers and an update on my C and C TV shows..

One of the many great things about running Funky Hand are the wonderful crafty people that I get to meet be it face to face or virtually on forums and blog hopping. I'm lucky enough to have some really fantastic customers who, I am honored to say, seem to like my designs. Every now and again they will send me images of cards or projects that they have created using Funky Hand papers and I am always really excited to see what other crafters are inspired to create. Sally very kindly sent me some images of cards that she had created using papers from my craft CDs Now that's Funky and V Funky and I thought I would share them with you as they are great designs.. Thanks for sharing them with me Sally.





On the Funky Hand front everything here is ticking along as usual. The new CD is in production as we speak so I should have delivery timings any day now. I have a new download collection waiting in the wings to be released later in the month so all my designing is up to date..for a nice change!

I know I told you that I recorded some pre recorded shows for three of my CDs for Create and Craft in May and they were on your screens for a few days in August before they disappeared. I've had a few people asking me about that and where they went? The situation is that the recorded shows that I did had some additional items included on them, paper packs I think, for sale that unfortunately were no longer available to Create and Craft to sell..so the shows had to be taken out of their schedules. I will be returning to the Ideal World studios at the beginning of December to re-record the shows again which should be on your TV screens in the new year,hopefully. I'm working on some new demonstrations for these shows and my wonderful Design Team have worked their usual magic and made some fab cards and other projects so hopefully these new shows will be worth taking a look at.

Speak to you again soon.
Anice xx

We're back in business!!

I must offer apologies to all the readers of this blog who have been missing out on the right hand bar with my lovely picture in and all the other interesting links to my DT blogs and favorite sites for a while. That's if you have been viewing it in Internet explorer.

I have to put my hands up and admit that it was because I embedded details about Twitter into a post a little while ago and I didn't do it properly..sorry. I didn't notice the problem before now because I don't use IE when surfing the internet.

Can I say a great big thank you to my fab customer and reader Trisha Platon for bringing the problem to my attention and to my wonderful techie guy (or code monkey as he likes to be called!) Ian who has spent the last few hours trying to find what I had done and mend it.

There Ian is that enough recognition for your efforts?

I'll be back with some crafty stuff in a few days, enjoy your Bonfire Night!
Anice xx

Happy Birthday to my Dad!

It's my Dads birthday today so I thought I would share the card I made for him now that he should have received it in the post.. crossed fingers!!



My Dad isn't really that interested in crafting..but he doesn't have much choice when I run a business in the crafting industry and my Mom is a crafting/card making Queen!! He always says the right words when he receives a card so we let him off!! This card has been made using papers from my soon to be released all NEW craft CD Funky Daze I can't wait to be able to share the wonderful creations that my Design Team are already creating with it. I'll keep you posted on the release date.

November is a pretty busy month on the birthday front here at Funky Hand, apart from my Dads birthday today there's also three birthday girls in my Design Team as well. Kath, Enfys and Allison are all celebrating this month so don't forget to pop over to their blogs (you'll find them in the side bar under my Design Team list) and wish them good wishes. Oh Kath is celebrating a special birthday this year as well, of course I'm not going to tell you a ladies age, but it deserves a message on the 7th on her blog!

Actually Kath isn't the only one with a 'special' birthday this month..I have one as well. Yes, it can't be over looked anymore on the 25th November I will be turning 40 years old. My goodness, when did that happen? I mean I'm sure I only turned 30 a couple of years ago..obviously it was a bit longer ago than that!! So I haven't fully decided how I am going to celebrate here but pop back closer to the time and I'll let you know..maybe a little sale might be in order..who knows!!

Anice xx

Happy spooking everyone!

Boo! Whilst I was creating some new adverts for magazines this afternoon I couldn't resist making a Halloween image to brighten up, or spook up more like, my blog!

I have to admit we don't really go in for doing anything special on Halloween, this evening I'll probably still be stuck in front of this PC catching up with work I should have finished this afternoon whilst I was playing making this digital image! Whatever you are up to this evening have fun and stay safe. I've always worried about children knocking on strangers doors asking for sweets in the dead of night..I mean that's something they are told NOT to do the rest of year.. right!

Anice xx

It's always great to have a reason to make a card!

Hey everyone..I'm finally back in the land of the living! Sorry again for my absense but hopefully things can get back to normal now!

We had some fabby news during my 'rest' some of our friends Andy and Sally had a little girl! They are English but live over in the US so we don't see them as often as we would like. But on the 13th October their first little girl arrived. Eleanor Rose. Thank goodness for Facebook as Sally posted some adorable pictures of the new arrival and I was able to 'borrow' one for my new baby card.





I printed the images of Eleanor in black and white onto some lovely shimmery paper that I bought from the Papermill Shop a while back..the shimmer doesn't really show on the pictures but it's really pretty. I liked the effect so much that I printed the two backing papers on the same stuff, so the card has a really sparkle look. The papers are both from a collection from my craft backing paper CD Now that's Funky. I wanted to keep it pretty simple as the image is so lovely so I just inked all the edges of the papers to give a bit of definition, added an pink organza ribbon and four stick on pearls.

Even though I haven't been here much I have been pretty busy as I have been putting the finishing touches to my all new CD collection. It's now all finished and ready to go off to the manufacturers for pressing and packing. I sent preview copies off to my Design Team Members last week and they have been making some fantastic cards and other projects with the new collections.. It's all very exciting and I can't wait to share them all with you!! I don't want to tease you too much so I'll just leave the details there but I'll be back with more info soon on release dates etc and also when you will be able to see it on the Create and Craft TV Channel.

Well time is getting on and I've work to do so I will leave you there, I'll be back soon hopefully with some more crafting projects.

Anice xx

Apologies for my absense...

Sorry it's been 10 days since I last updated this blog. I'm afraid as well as the joy of having MS I also suffer with epileptic seizures every now and again and last Thursday evening and Friday afternoon I experienced two. So..I've been feeling a little under the weather! Hopefully the fog will begin to lift over the next couple of days as I have lots of things to be getting on with and things I want to share with you.
Speak real soon.
Anice xx

Gotta Wear Shades - DCM Challenge

This Fridays Challenge on Daring Cardmakers is to make a bright card. Sometimes when I decide on colour collections on my CDs I choose colours that work well together but they can be a bit bright! Alot of the time those collections go the distance but sometimes they don't! This colour collection is an example from my last craft CD Now that's Funky. I enjoyed making this card even though it is pretty simple in design. I used three matching papers from the Lollipop collection from Now thats Funky CD and ran the squares through a swiss dots embossing folder to give them a bit of texture. The stamp is a pretty old one of mine but one of my favourites as I love cats and these ones are really cheeky !!



Yesterday I was really pleased with myself as I happened across a Wii Fit that hadn't sold out..well not until I bought the last one anyway! Last night Ian and I set it up and I was mortified to see my little mini me person grow to the size of an elephant once I had been weighted and measured!! But that will just inspire me to get on and use it more often..oh and stop eating sweeties whilst I design papers sat infront of my PC all day!! This morning I did 30 mins of Step Aerobics and took two short jogs with my little mini me running pal. I had to have a bit of sit down afterwards..but I resisted a biscuit with my cup of tea !!

Anice xx

Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

Now I have wanted to join in with a challenge on the Penny Black Saturday Challenge Blog for ages but my problem was I don't have many Penny Black stamps. This weekend I decided I was going to search around and find my PB stamps and see if there was something I could use. Oh dear I had even less PB stamps than I realised. Infact I could only find a couple and none of them were really image stamps in the true sense. But I so wanted to join in with the sketch this week I have used the silhouette 3 stamp that I do own and stamped it a few times to create a group of flowers. I promise it is a Penny Black stamp..I'm looking at it now..it's from 2005 by Jehane Boden Spiers. I hope this still counts!!





The black and white backing papers and the scalloped circle are from my new craft download collection Salt and Pepper. I teamed it with some lovely pale green Brazzill swiss dots card that I accidentally purchased a couple of weeks ago..infact I accidentally got the whole range of colours they are lush!! A couple of buttons, ribbon and some fibres and it was finished!!

I enjoyed taking part..I just hope my Penny Black stamp is acceptable! Note to self..get some Penny Black stamps!
Anice xx

New download release to celebrate National Card Making Day

Isn't it great to have a day all of our own to celebrate our crafting obsession! All over the internet today craft forums and bloggers are celebrating with challenges and other activities. I thought I would join in by releasing our latest craft paper download Salt and Pepper.You can find it available to purchase on our website www.funkyhand.com now and as always it's only £3.49 for 20 papers, a matching Alpha and an additional extra which this time is a set of layered scalloped circles, great for those of you that haven't got round to buying any nestabilities yet!

This new collection has been created using Black, white and grey which means the papers are great for mixing with bright contrasting colours. Which is just what I did with the card I made with a couple of the papers yesterday afternoon...





The papers are all from Salt and Pepper craft download, the circular chipboard arrow is from Brazzill Basics also covered with a paper from the collection. It was pretty interesting trying to file the paper around the curl but my trusty Basic Grey files came to the rescue!!. I hand cut the heart from red felt I've had in my stash for years but to give the heart a little twist I used a Fashion Sense pin from Fancy Pants Designs. How cool is that?..I have a big packet of them with flowers and stars as well as hearts on them in fab bright colours..expect to see them regularly in the future!!

To update you on the release of our next CD, everything is pretty much finished so it will all be off to the manufacturers next week. I'll keep you up to date on the release date.

Well that's about it for today, enjoy your card making day and I'll catch up with you again soon.
Anice xx

What the heck is 'Twitter'?

I've been asked this question a few times since I added Twitter to the side bar of this blog. So I thought I would share a really simple explanation of what it is that I found this morning it's at the bottom of the post.

Now I have to admit, I am hooked on updating my Twitter and I love to see what the people I am following are up to. I don't get to update this blog as often as I would like. I never seem to have as much time as I would like to do it but, I have time to do a quick update in 140 letters on Twitter a few times a day! So if you pop by this blog and you see I haven't update it for a few days just have a quick look on the side bar at my Twitter updates and you will see what I have been up to and perhaps why I haven't updated recently!! You might even want to join in yourself..if you do, let me know your twitter name and I'll follow you..it's a great way of seeing what other peoples lives are like day to day!!

Anice xx

One card covers two challenges !

With all the work I've been having to put in recently to finish my new CD,..oh did I mention..I'VE FINISHED DESIGNING FOR MY NEW CD ! Hurrah! (Ian will be working his magic this weekend on it so watch this space for more info on it's release.) I haven't really had much time to join in with any challenges so you can understand my delight when I visited Daring Card Makers this morning to see what their challenge was this week and it was to include a crown on your creation. One of my new papers just happens to have crowns all over so it was perfect. I have also been meaning to join in with this weeks Di Hickman sketch as well so I decided to combine the two together.





All the papers and letters are from my new CD Funky Daze The hearts are Maya Road Chipboard which were already coloured but I decided to re cover them with a co ordinating paper from the same collection. I joined them together with a piece of twisted 21 gauge black craft wire to give a little bit of interest.

We have a busy weekend ahead getting everything ready with the new CD to send to the manufacturers so we decided it would be nice to go out to dinner tonight with our good friends Corrina and Neil. I've been looking in my wardrobe this morning to find something appropriate to wear to no avail I'm afraid. I really need to get on a diet to be able to get back into all my going out clothes, just buying more isn't really how I should handle the fact that I can't get anything on!

Even though I have finally finished designing for the new CD, my designing hasn't stopped because I am now working on a new download collection which hopefully will be available soon as well! I'm trying to stick to my promise to myself of releasing a new one once a month..but I may miss the end of this month at this rate.. maybe two in October then. Gosh, I shouldn't make promises when it comes to designing I find I can't always keep them!! But whilst the mojo is at home and willing to work I'll keep him busy!!
Catch up again soon!
Anice xx

Sneaky look at my new CD..

I know, I know I am always saying recently that I have nearly finished my new CD. But this time I'm telling the truth! I am finally on the home straight with the designing and prep for handing it over to Ian to do his techie magic and then it will be off to the manufacturers..and I will sigh a very big sigh of relief. I thought I would give you a little sneaky look at a project that I have created with one of the new items I have included on this CD. Once I've finished everything I promise I will give you a better idea of what you will see on it..but this will have to do for now...



I'm really looking forward to letting my Design Team gang get their hands on the new papers because I think they will out do themselves again with what they will come up with this time. Though they will have to go some as the cards and other projects they have created with my previous CDs have been amazing!

As well as trying to finish the designing for this new CD I have been getting involved with a collection of designers who have given craft designs for free to help raise money for charitable causes. I am waiting for my copy of the first charity CD to arrive and once I have it I will be back to tell you all about it.

Now I have more work to do to get this designing finally under my belt and I have to prepare for a meeting with my business adviser tonight. Poor David whenever we get together I always have a list of questions as long as my arm for him to answer. Tonight will be no different I'm afraid. Best get on starting to write my list.
Speak again soon!
Anice xx

Buttons Galore!

On Saturday we visited Ians parents to celebrate his Grandmas 95th birthday. Whilst we were there we got talking about buttons..don't ask me how! But anyway Ians Mum went upstairs and then came down with a huge box of vintage buttons that she must have been saving for forty years. There was every sort of button you can think of in there..being Ians Mum they were all beautifully organised into colours in their own little compartments as well! Well, luckily for me she said I could have them! Woohoo! Now I have a collection of the most amazing buttons from huge 60/70s buttons right down to the tiniest baby buttons. I took these quick pictures of just a few of them..



I don't know what I am going to do with them yet but there are so many I don't think I need to worry about running out anytime soon!!
Anice xx

Two birthdays, two very different ages !

It's a special week for two members of Ians family this week, two birthdays. But they couldn't be further apart really. Today is Ians Grandmas birthday and she is the amazing age of ninety five. When I was making this card I decided to give her a big textured flower as her eye sight isn't all it once was and she will be able to feel the leaves as well as look at them.





I gave the flower a black craft wire stem to give it even more texture. All the papers are new ones from my yet to be released CD, I said I'd give you a little preview in my last post so here it is. The designing is going OK so I am hoping to be able to release the CD in October (crossed fingers!!) The sentiment on the card is Doodlebug All Mixed up Rub ons in white and Beetle black.

The next card is for Ians Nephew who is the grand old age of five in the week ! He lives in America so this card needs to be on it's way to him to reach him in good time. The family have just got themselves some kittens so I thought I would include a cat on the card for him.



The papers I used are from my backing paper CD Now thats Funky and the cat image is a cute one from Lili of the Valley that I have had forever! The card has a long way to travel so I wanted it to be pretty flat but to just give it a bit of texture I layered the cat image onto brown felt and roughed it up a bit. The sentiment was created with an Around the Block Tape Writer which was one of my many purchases when I visited my parents recently. Mom and I ventured to the new little independent craft shop that had opened in the town. Imagine my surprise when they were stocking my CD-Roms ! I then realised that I had met the owners at the Craft Trade Show at the NEC in February !

This week has been a busy one as I guest presented a craft show on Ideal World TV on Thursday morning and was preparing for it for all the rest of the week. Ian had a bit of a shock as he always sits in the studio when I'm on TV but he has no desire to be on camera. On Thursday the Director obviously decided to have a laugh with him and they turned the camera on him for a few seconds and made him wave to everyone ! He was mortified..but he has watched it a number of times on the Sky + so I think he might have secretly enjoyed it ..just a little bit!!

Well we are off for a birthday lunch this afternoon for Ians Grandma and then we are spending the evening with some friends so I had best get on or we will never be ready ! Enjoy your weekend.
Anice xx

My entry to this weeks DCM Challenge.

As you know from my last post I have the honour to be the sponsor of the Friday Challenge over at Daring Cardmakers Blog this week. I thought as I had designed the sketch that I should at least make an effort and make a card to join in! So here is my card:





I used papers from my Shabby Saturday download collection but I decided to shy away from the pink aspect of the collection and used the cream and black papers instead. Which went great with my Felt Fusion swirls. A fabric flower and a black and white button I bought at my local craft shop attached with copper coloured wire finished it off. The sentiment is my usual All Mixed up rub ons. I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

Things are as busy as usual here at Funky Hand Towers, I've finished getting the demonstration cards ready for my live show on Ideal World on Thursday so I can now get back to designing for the new CD. I might just pop back in a couple of days and share a few of the new papers I've designed, just to give you a bit of a sneak peek!!

Anice xx

Funky Hand sponsoring this weeks Daring Cardmakers Blog Challenge

Oh how excited am I this morning! I am very proud to be sponsoring this weeks Friday challenge over at Daring Cardmakers Challenge Blog. Why don't you go over and take a look at what fantastic cards their fab design team have created using the sketch that I provided them with and with my download Shabby Saturday ? If you make a card with the sketch and put it on your blog you will be in with a chance of winning a copy of Shabby Saturday completely FREE! (You don't need to use Funky Hand papers of course your card can be made with whatever stash you like!)
Here's the sketch and a wonderful card made by Jozza who is a member of the DCM team and my Design Team.





I have been so busy getting the demonstrations for next Thursdays live show on Ideal World ready that I haven't had a chance to make a card of my own for this challenge, I will try to remedy that over the next couple of days..though I don't think I want to win the prize..I've already go that download!!!

I'd love to see what you come up with for the challenge so don't forget to take part and I will visit everyones blog to have a look.. what are you waiting for?? Go on get crafting!!

Anice xx

A quick digi scrap page to keep my hand in!

I don't know, recently it seems the busier I get having a craft based business..the less time I have to actually craft! I decided to remedy this when I saw this lovely picture of all of Ians Nephews and his brand new Niece from a holiday they all enjoyed together visiting Ians brother and his family over in the US recently.



Don't they all look like little angels? I can assure you that they are not so, this must have been a picture taken very quickly!! I created the digi page using papers from my new download Minty Madness, with some extra scroll brushes to finish it off.

I want to send my congratulations and big hugs to Chris (Craftling) from my Design Team who has landed herself a fab new job! Well done Chris you deserve it..I just knew you would be the best at the interview!!

You may have noticed on my side bar that I have a Live show scheduled in on Ideal World on the 11th September at 9am. I will be demoing cards using my latest three CDs, Funky Seasons, V Funky and Now that's Funky. Catch the show then if you can !

Actually this could just be a list of things that are coming up for us but I don't want to bore you too much! I have one great thing coming up though which I am very excited about. I'll be back later in the week to tell you all about it!
Until then..

Anice xx

We're sponsoring a challenge!

Gosh, with the week I've had I completely forgot about sponsoring this weeks challenge over at Penny Black Saturday Challenge. If you take part you can win a copy of my new download Minty Madness..so what are you waiting for???

The Challenge is to create a card or ATC or whatever you like using Stars and Stripes as your theme. The only thing you need to remember to include is a Penny Black Stamped image!

Pop over there to see some wonderful examples by their design team to get you started, the wonderful Kath from my DT is on the team so I thought I would share her card with you to get you in the mood!



How cute is that?

Right I have loads to do today as it's one of our friends birthday tomorrow but we are off out for a meal tonight.So Happy Birthday Vic! It's also my parents 40th Wedding Anniversary tomorrow, I hope my present arrives this morning, the lady at the post office promised that it would..I even paid extra for it to arrive on a Saturday..but you never can be sure !

Anice xx

A bit of a refresh !

I hope you all enjoyed your Bank Holiday weekend. Mine was pretty busy with the launch of the new download collection Minty Madness and us having our first discount code offer. Thank you everyone who took the time to email me about how much you liked the collection and an extra big thank you to everyone who purchased the download. It was a fantastic launch! It's always so great to hear directly from other crafters and see your fab work as well. If any of you who have purchased the download this weekend have pictures of cards you have made email them over to the support address at funkyhand.com and I will pop them up here for everyone to admire. My design team have been working over time this weekend and have created some amazing cards with the new papers. They have been making them so fast I haven't been able to keep up with getting them on the website. Have a scoot over to all their blogs and get a taste of what they have been creating.

I mentioned in the title of this blog post that we have had a bit of a refresh..well as well as cleaning the bathroom and kitchen yesterday, which has needed doing for rather longer than I'd like to admit!!, we refreshed the website and here on the blog with a new header. Ian has been bending my ear for about two weeks about creating something a bit more interesting so finally yesterday we got something done!
I hope you like it!

Right, they say there is no rest for the wicked..so I must be very wicked as I have a huge pile of orders to process this morning. I don't want to keep my crafting customers waiting so I'd best get on with them!
Speak again soon.
Anice xx

New download collection & a Bank Holiday discount code!

I've been absent from my blog for way too long again..my only excuse is that I have been working very hard getting together another new download collection. It's been a mad house here at Funky Hand Towers whilst Ian and I run around trying to get everything done. At last it's all finished and I can tell you about my new craft backing paper download collection Minty Madness. Once again you can grab this collection on my website www.funkyhand.com for the fantastic price of only £3.49.



Green is my favourite colour so I thought I would indulge my taste with this collection. When I shared it with my Design Team one of them said it reminded her of Mint Aeros..as they are one of my favourite sweeties that must have had some influence on me when I was designing it!! In the collection there are 22 coordinating backing papers a matching alphabet and a page of stars and sentiments. My Design team members have been working their creative magic again and have made some great cards with the papers which you can see on the website.

Here is a quick card I made once the collection was finished to give you an idea of what you could do with the papers.



But that's not all... as it's Bank Holiday Monday tomorrow I thought I would offer my lovely blog readers a special treat. If you use the following code when you purchase anything from my website from now until 12 Midnight Monday 25th August you will receive a 10% Discount on your whole order! So it's a perfect time to try one of our download collections or CD-Roms if you haven't ventured into printing your own papers before. The discount code you need to enter is BLOGCOUPON When you checkout on the website there is a special place to enter the redemption code. One thing I must tell you..you can only use this code if you checkout through our website you can't use it if you choose PayPal Express Checkout.

I hope you have a great Bank Holiday Monday..phew I need to go and get myself a nice cup of tea and put my feet up!!
Anice xx

Happy Left Handers Day!

HeHe! It's great that us poor left handed people who have to struggle every day with the most simple things in this Right handed world have a special day just for us to celebrate our left handedness! So to all you left handers out there, have a great day! If you fancy having a bit of fun in your office or place of work how about printing off one of these 'Lefty Zone' posters from the Left Handed Club website and get your right handed mates to see just what it's like being in the exclusive 10% of left handers!!

It's double fun for us in our house as both Ian and I are left handed, everything is set up here for us and it's such a laugh when people visit and they find it difficult to use our kettle as it's set up left handed, left handed tin openers, scissors, plus lots more. I'm even sitting typing on a left handed keyboard with the mouse on the left hand side!
Enjoy your day lefties!!
Anice xx