CALL OUT for new Funky Hand Design Team Members

Would you like to join our Design Team here at Funky Hand? I am looking to recruit a few new Design Team members and it could be you..

'What do I need to do?' I hear you ask!

If you have a blog. Put a post up on there with a couple of your favourite cards or other creations that you have made and link back to this 'call out' post here on my Funky Hand Thoughts blog. Then leave me a message here so I can pop over and visit your blog and see your fav creations. Don't worry, your examples don't have to be made with Funky Hand papers if you don't have any available, and they don't have to be cards either I am looking for any sort of crafter that would like to join the team and use Funky Hand products. Just show me the work you are proudest of. Then email me directly on this email address support@funkyhand.com telling me a little about yourself and why you would like to join our team. Title the email 'Funky Hand Design Gang' (I think that side of things is a bit more personal so lets keep it that way!)

If you don't have a blog (yet). Don't think you are not welcome. You can go to the Funky Hand Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/funkyhand( 'like' it as well please!!) and post pictures of a couple of the cards or creations that you are most proud of on there. Please make sure you put your name clearly on your cards so I know they are yours and leave a message on the post that is on the Facebook page about this Design Team call out. Then send me an email like mentioned above telling me about yourself and why you'd like to join us.

'What's in it for me?' you are quite rightly thinking..

The Funky Hand Design Gang have been together for quite a few years now and I am lucky enough to have a collection of some of the most talented card makers around involved. You will receive free advanced copies of all my craft CD ROM releases and Download collections which you then get to play with before anyone else! Your card and craft creations will be showcased on my website www.funkyhand.com in the relevant galleries and they will be shown on my live and recorded craft shows on Create and Craft TV. You will also be given the opportunity to have your creations featured in many of the top selling UK cardmaking and crafting magazines. The Design Team have their own Challenge blog Get Funky and you will be involved with that getting the opportunity to decide on the challenge regularly and joining in with promoting the challenges and sharing your creations and techniques every month.  As well as all that, we also have a private forum where the Design Team hang out, chat and share ideas and creations with the rest of the team.  We are a virtual gang of crafty friends which is a wonderful thing to be part of.

This Design Team is a very friendly, supportive, talented group of crafters and we are looking forward to increasing the numbers of people working and laughing with us.. does that sound like something you would like to be involved in? If the answer is yes, then I want to hear from you !

If you would like to apply please leave a message here on this post and images on your blog or, leave images on our Facebook page and get in touch by email at the latest by 2ND MAY 2012 and I will make a decision about new members by 9TH MAY 2012 and post the results just after. I'll be intouch with each person who emails me to apply to let you know the outcome of your application.  We don't just leave you hanging here at Funky Hand..it's not fair.

I am really looking forward to seeing all of your creations and I know the rest of the Design Team are as well. So, get posting we need new gang members !!

Hope to hear from you very soon.
Anice xx

Cake! Get over to the Challenge!

I know I'm naughty talking about cake..but it's strongly on my mind at the moment.  Maybe because we don't have any in the house !

So, I've had to put up with just putting crafty cakes on my latest card for the Get Funky Challenge Blog.

It was all created using my Papercraft Factory CD ROM  Happy Happy Birthday. For a closer look at the card and a more detailed outline of how I made it pop over to the Funky Hand Design Team challenge blog Get Funky where I am the inspiration host for the next couple of days.  Join in with us, the theme is 'Getting Sentimental' and all that means is that your creation needs to be centered around using a sentiment rather than your usual topper.  A nice little challenge to get your crafty minds going.  Remember, to be able to win the download prize you need to include at least ONE Funky Hand product on your creation..but I make it nice and easy I give you a Funky Freebie on my website www.funkyhand.com so if you don't have any Funky Hand stash yet you can use that instead.  It changes ever month so grab it and get joining in with our challenge before the 14th May.

Before I go, I thought I'd mention that during next week I will be putting out a call for some new Funky Hand Design Team Members.  If you follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/funkyhand or like the Funky Hand page on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/funkyhand  then you will have already heard this news!

  Get with it crafters and get following me and Funky Hand! 

Anyway, you'll get all the details here later next week..I can't wait to start meeting some of you potential DT members, I know there will be hard descions to be made because there are so many of you out there who are fantastic crafters.

Speak again very soon.
Anice xx

Look at my Funky Chickens!

Don't worry I haven't finally lost the plot!  I've come close to it recently but I promise everything is just fine.. I wanted to show you a picture of the wonderful custom order Chickens that Lynsey of  SwirlyArts fame has made for me..

Aren't they wonderful? The little one is supposed to be used as a pin cushion but he is sitting on my massive pile of paperwork as a paper weight at the moment. The big chicken is a door stop but to tell you the truth, looking at my pile of paperwork..she might be needed on my desk very soon!!

To find out how you can get something like these for yourself pop to the Swirlyarts blog to find out all about her wonderful creations on her Etsy store and her Folksy store.  The quality of Lynsey's work is second to none and so is the service you get, so you wont be disappointed with anything you order from her.http://swirlyarts.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/maman-et-bebe.html


Things are going well here with the next Funky Hand CD ROM and  the entries are starting to come in on the Get Funky Challenge Blog for this months challenge.  Why not pop over there and join in with us?  The challenge is great this month, it is to make your sentiment the central part of your card, so instead of the usual topper image use your sentiment to base your card design around.. gets you thinking! 

Speak again very soon
Anice xx

It's time for a new Get Funky Challenge

Can you believe that another month has passed us by?  It's the Funky Fifteenth again so that means a new    Get Funky Challenge Blog challenge!

This month Debs is our hostess and the challenge she has set us is to 'Get Sentimental'  Now, she doesn't mean you have to make slushy love cards!  This month you just need to use a sentiment as the central theme on your creation..here's Debs inspiration card..

You'll see my take on this challenge on the 22nd April but, there will be plenty of inspiration during the rest of the month and into May from the rest of the Funky Hand Design Team members so keep popping back for more ideas.  You have until May 14th to join in with us and we'd love to have you.  If you crafty creation is chosen as the winning entry you get a prize of any one of the Funky Hand download collections that are available on my website www.funkyhand.com. 

Now on the Get Funky Challenge Blog we only have one little rule and that is that you use at least ONE Funky Hand product on your entry.  If you don't have any Funky Hand stash yet then don't worry, as I have provided everyone with a Funky Freebie on my website that you can download for FREE and use on your creation.  So no excuses now eh?  Let's see your crafting ideas, I can't wait to visit your blogs!

Speak again very soon.
Anice xx 

I just wanted to remember..

This isn't a crafty post today. As you know if you read my blog very often I am a bit of a history addict.  I have to admit to having a hankering for Tudor and medieval history BUT, today is a very special historical day.

Today, 14th April 1912 the 'unsinkable' ship Titanic hit an iceberg at 11.40pm.

Officially it sank at 2.20am on the 15th April but I decided I wanted to remember the terrible disaster, of one hundred years ago, today when the tragedy began to unfold. 

It's very easy to think of this terrible sinking to the sound of Celine Dion singing and Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio in a romantic, exciting movie. But, over 1500 people men, women and children lost their lives one hundred years ago in awful, terrifying circumstances. Alot of them were never found, buried at sea or buried in mass graves with just a number assigned to them as they were, in those days, unable to identify who they were. Leaving loved ones always wondering what happened to them.

I hope that you don't mind me filling my craft blog with historical fact but I just wanted to take a moment to think of those people, their lives, their hopes and dreams and remember them.

Speak again soon (about crafting I promise)
Anice xx 

I won something..hehehe! So,lets have a chat!

Can you tell I'm a bit excited? and maybe a bit sad as well really I think!  I received an email from my CD manufacturers before Easter saying they were having a competition on their website so, of course I couldn't resist having a go.  I have to say it was a really great competition and the way they ran it was brill..infact I've already told them that I'm going to 'borrow' it in the future for my website and lovely customers..so that's something to look out for in the future!!

Anyway I won a runners up prize, which was a lovely Thorntons Chocolate egg. Here it is..

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter break, and if you have children you are probably still enjoying their company.  If you took advantage of the Funky Hand Easter Sale then, thank you and I hope you got everything that you wanted.  It went really well and we are trying to work through all of your orders and get them out to you as soon as possible.  Poor Gary my Dispatch Manager is running around like a headless chicken supervising all the packages and making sure everyone gets the right things!!

I don't often spend much time just chatting to you on this blog it's usually just the latest picture of a card I've made and I'm gone, back to work.  I was drinking a cup of coffee yesterday and I started looking back right to when I first started writing this blog in 2006.  No one was reading it of course, but I saw that I talked alot more..so, just for today I thought I would stop just for a little while and have a chat with you.  If you've had enough already please feel free to move on now...

Right, if you have hung on then I want to give you a little update on everything that is going on here in The Garden Studio and with me.

Well I'm working away on the next Funky Hand CD ROM which (fingers very tightly crossed) should be released late in May.  I don't know why, but people expect me to release CDs all the time like some of my competitor craft CD companies do but, I don't get other designers to create my backing  papers and other stuff on the CDs, it's just little old me sitting here working into the night designing them myself.  I have to admit sometimes I wish I did have other people doing them for me..but then it wouldn't be a Funky Hand CD it would just be someone elses work with our company name on it and that's not how I want it.  So, I'm afraid you have to wait for my CDs :(  When I'm designing the backing papers I design loads more than go onto the CDs..I'll design something, take an age over it, and then sit back and say to myself  'Would I use this if I was making a card or crafting in any other way?' if the answer is No..then the delete button is pushed and a few hours work can be gone but..if I wouldn't use it, why should you??  Anyway as I say the CD is chugging along and I'll keep you updated on that. With all of that said, I mean completely no disrespect to any other craft CD manufacturers, everyone has the right to run their business how they see fit and I wish only good fortune to them all. Thank goodness we are not all the same..how boring would that be?

You may have noticed that I have been trying to release more craft download collections this year.  So far there has been at least one new release each month..I've yet to get one done for April yet..but that is also on my list.  One of the reasons Ive been doing that is because we are really getting lot more customers from around the world wanting to try out Funky Hand products and downloads are a quick, easy and cheap way to see if they are interested.  Thankfully we are also finding they do like what we are doing and come back for more! So, I though I'd better up my game and give everyone more choice and new things to download more often.  If you have never tried downloading craft stuff before you could always try our Funky Freebie to see if it's to your taste. Funky Freebie? Well that's a single backing paper that is available on my website www.funkyhand.com for you to download for free.  It's linked with our Design Team challenge blog Get Funky and it gets changed every month so if you don't grab it between the 15th of one month and the 14th of the next you'll miss it!  Take a look.

OK, that's work covered I think, so how are things in my life?  Well pretty good, I don't talk much about my MS and Epilepsy as well..., it's pretty boring to anyone who is reading a craft blog and no one wants to get dragged into any moaning now do they?  I know I don't!!  My health is always in the front of my mind and I'm messing with different drugs for this and that and trying to work around everything all the time but, I always remember that if I hadn't been ill six years ago (wow is it that long ago now?!) I wouldn't even be here talking with you, Funky Hand wouldn't exist and I would still be there, stressed and bored trying to climb the corporate management ladder just like I was back then.  So, it always really depends how you look at your life.  I know there are alot of you out there that have health problems and I urge you to just concentrate on the positive things in your life and not on the 'what I could have been doing'  That old life is gone..but you have a wonderful new life now and there are always great things to find in it no matter how dark it might feel at times.

Right, I think I have wittered onto you for long enough now, and you have other blogs to go and read or even something more important to do..I can hear my year end accounts shouting me from the filing cabinet! So off with you all now..and I'll be back very soon.

Much love to you all
Anice xx

Happy Easter..Get Funky Challenge still on!

Happy Easter.  I hope you are having a fab time with lots of chocolate and people you love around you.. I'm pretty excited today as my parents are visiting for a couple of days and I haven't seen them since Christmas.  I speak to them regularly but it's not the same.  So I'm really looking forward to them arriving..we have loads of food in the house, probably far too much but better to be safe than sorry eh?!

Anyway it just happens that my inspiration card for the Get Funky Challenge Blog is today so here's a bit of a look at what I have made..

 To find out how I made it and see more pictures pop over to the Get Funky Challenge Blog..then get crafting and join in with us.  You have until the 14th to get your entries in and there's a Funky Freebie backing paper on my website www.funkyhand.com to help you get started!
Talking of my website..there is still a MASSIVE SALE going on over there, with upto 75% discounts available on some products. There are discounts available on everything on the website so don't miss out as it's all over at 10pm on Monday 9th.

Right, that's about all my news really, oh the next Funky Hand CD release is coming along nicely and I should have a release date of sometime in May for you very soon.  I'd best have it sorted as I already have provisional dates for shows with it on the Create And Craft TV channel.. another reason for me to get moving on getting it finished!!

Once again have a fab Easter Sunday and don't forget to take a look at our sale on www.funkyhand.com and treat yourself to a little Funky Hand crafty fun..it's calorie free!! Now just to wait to see when my parents will arrive..all excited to see them..

Speak again soon
Anice xx

Easter Sale upto 75% OFF!

It's a lovely long Easter weekend and we here at Funky Hand are feeling all chilled and generous so we have decided to have an Easter sale on ALL products on our website www.funkyhand.com

*Selected products only. Online purchases only. Sale ends 10pm, 9 Apr, 2012.

 

I think we must have gone loopy here at the Garden Studio because the sale prices are amazing! Just for a bit of an example if you buy one of the Funky Hand Original papercraft CD ROMS you can get one for as little as £1.50 ! Our Papercraft Factory CD ROMS usually retail at £16.99 until Monday 9th April at 10pm you can grab them for £10.19 each !  There's sale prices on all Funky Hand papercraft Download collections and even on all our complimentary Stash items. That includes ribbon, buttons and loads of other fab crafting stash.  How about getting yourself some Letraset Promarkers usually £7.39 for just £6.65?

 

Have a good look around on the website there is money off everything. www.funkyhand.com

 

The sale is running from today Friday 6th April until 10pm Monday 9th April.  Don't kick yourself later, go to our website www.funkyhand.com and grab a bargain as everything is only available until all the stock has gone!

 

Happy Easter from Funky Hand

Anice xx 

 

 

A new member of the family...

Isn't is always wonderful when there is a new baby in the family?  We have all been eagerly awaiting the arrival of my cousin Katie's little bundle and he arrived safely on Sunday 4th March.  Firstly I want to say a belated congratulations to Katie and Chris on the arrival of Josiah Arthur.  He is a little smasher!

If you read my blog regularly you may remember me posting about the beautiful Wedding Katie and Chris had a couple of Summers ago..if you'd like to see the pictures take a look here. Wedding of the Year!

Anyway, the arrival of a new baby is always the perfect time to make a card so here is mine..

As he was a little boy I couldn't add all the ribbon and flowers I would have for a little girls arrival so I thought I would keep it simple.  The teddy bear digital stamp, sentiment and all the backing papers are from my craft CD ROM Craft The Year Away.  I printed two copies of the bear as I planned on decoupaging all of him but in the end I just layered his head and the sentiment with 1mm foam pads as it didn't look right!!

The plain coloured papers under the image got a good distressing with one of my basic grey files.  I love filing and distressing the edges of paper it really chills me out!! Here's a closer look at those papers.

I know little Josiah is getting himself well settled in with his new Mom and Dad and Katie and Chris could not be happier.  It gives me a lovely warm feeling to think of them all starting this wonderful new journey together.  Hopefully this little card let them know how pleased I am for them all.

Right, before I go I just wanted to remind you of the Get Funky Challenge that is still running at the moment.  The challenge this month is 'Celebrating Spring' and you can make anything that you like for the challenge. It doesn't have to be a card, it could be a scrap page, an ATC, a label, some altered art.. anything at all that you like as long as it celebrates spring coming.  Though looking out of my studio window at this moment with sleet and bits of snow coming down it's not too Spring like at the moment!

The only rule we have on the Get Funky Challenge blog is that you use at least ONE Funky Hand product on your creation, it could be a backing paper one of our digital stamps anything.  If you don't have any Funky Hand stash in your craft collection then I help you out every month with a Funky Freebie which, this month is a backing paper that you can download from my website www.funkyhand.com for FREE. This months backing paper actually matches my latest craft download collection Spring Has Sprung.  So, no excuses, get making your Spring cards and join in with us on the Get Funky Blog.

Speak again very soon.
Anice xx