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