Fathers Day. Same card two different looks.

It's Fathers Day so best wishes to all the Dads out there.  I made my cards a bit late I'm ashamed to say.  So, my Dad will see his card here before he actually receives it.  Sorry Dad.

I thought I would make the same basic card for both my Dad and Ian's Dad but use different papers and colour the digital stamp to match those colours.  It's actually really surprising how different they look.

First up is Ian's Dads card.  I used the newly released Thank You Doodlewords digital stamp and papers from my craft CD Wishes and Kisses, In Sympathy collection

Sorry about the rather poor images, the light was pretty bad here yesterday. But you'll get the idea!  I matched the colours that I used to colour the digital stamp to the spotty backing paper.

I used Letraset Promarkers to colour the image. Here are the colours I used, Morning Mist, Slate, Caramel, Black & March Hare to outline the whole image.  The Doodlewords digital stamps are really easy to colour so great if you need something quickly or are a beginner with colouring.

When I made the other card I followed the general design of the first card and used the same Thank You digital stamp but this time used backing papers from my craft CD Colour Me Happy, Pleased to see Ya Collection.

Once again I used the spotty paper to match the colours as closely as possible when colouring the digital stamp.

The Promarkers I used this time were, Satin, Green Shoot, Budding Rose, Plum Preserve and Fresh Meadow to outline the image.

So, if you need to make more than one card for the same occasion and you have left it pretty late like I did! Using the same basic design but changing the backing papers can make two or more pretty different cards.

Funky Hand is flooding craft magazines this month with three different collections of cards in three different  magazines.  I'll be back to show you some of the cards that are in the magazines once they are in the shops.

So, I'll speak to you again very soon.
Anice xx

Spring Wedding Scrap Page

When I was working on the new Wedding Downloads that I have just released I decided that I could make up a simple digital scrap page with a picture from my friends Andy and Vics wedding from last Summer.

I actually used the Spring Wedding Collection as that had colours that matched the image better.  The photograph was coloured but I decided I wanted it black and white and then to pick out the colour of Vics hair and bouquet in the picture.

See what you think..

It's a very simple digital scrap page but I wanted to show off the Spring Wedding backing papers and the Alphabet that matches.  You can purchase then from my website www.funkyhand.com now.  You can download the backing papers and the alphabets (png files) separately or get them in a combined collection for a good price. You should take a look at the galleries of cards for all the new Wedding collections, my Design Team girls have made some amazing cards.

Anyway, I had best get back to work.  If you can believe it I've started on Christmas products. It's early I know and it's pretty hard to be inspired when the weather has been so good but loads of crafters start really early with their Christmas cards I need to have some downloads and digital stamps available to tempt them! 

I have to admit to being a last minute Christmas card maker.  When do you get started?  I'd love to hear what you have planned for Christmas cards or have you already got them started or even finished?!

Speak soon
Anice xx

New digital stamp -Happy Birthday

Well, what excuse do I have for not posting here for over a month?  I've been working on new Wedding themed paper and alphabet downloads and some new digital stamps.  Is that a good enough excuse?  I don't think so really but it's the only one I have!

Anyway less of my excuses and lets move onto the card I made for Ians Dads birthday recently...

I was quite pleased with this card for a man.  The base card is black so I didn't need to have to think about having a lower layer of paper.  The squares of patterned paper are from the Funky Hand CD Colour Me Happy, the Jovial Man collection.  Then I topped it with one of my new digital stamps Doodlewords.  This one is of course called Happy Birthday!

Here's a closer look..

These digital stamps are perfect for matching the colours of the backing papers that you choose for your card.  That's what I did and it worked great.  I am not a wonderfully experienced colourer, I'm still practising and learning so I thought about other people like me when designing this collection of stamps.  They are really easy to colour in and they are fun and funky toppers.  There are more than just a Happy Birthday digital stamp, there is also: New Home, Hello, Mr & Mrs, You're Having A Baby & Thank You.  You can find them all on the Funky Hand website.As usual there are some fantastic samples from my Design Team members so you can get some inspiration for what you can use them for. Take a look at all the galleries. There will be somemore Doodleword digital stamps pretty soon, I'm looking at them on my desk at this moment!

I've also been working on a couple of magazine spreads.  I can't show them to you yet as the magazines are not released for sale until later in the month.  But keep your eyes out for Creative Card Making, Creative Stamping and Complete Cardmaking with your PC. Lou from my Design Team created the cards for the last magazine and there are some great freebies on the CD ROM that comes free with that magazine. Perfect for all you digital crafters.
 
I'll be back later in the month to show you those card images, hopefully I'll be back to talk to you before then though!OK enough from me, get back to whatever you need to be up to. I hope it's bit of crafting.

Speak again very soon.
Anice xx

A birthday card for our little princess

Hello, I know you probably can't believe it, Anice has blogged more than once in a week!  But I am really trying to stay on top of my posts..how many times have I said that before? Too many to remember, but you can't blame a lass for trying!

Today's card I made for Steffi, Ians niece and both of our God Daughter. She is a real little princess who loves pink, and plenty of bling!  I went for the pink..but I don't think I added enough bling..see what you think..

The backing papers on the card are from the Funky Hand Colour Me Happy CD ROM  (Blissful Baby collection) The Cupcake image is from the Happy Happy Birthday CD.  I use just two of the papers from the collection but by reducing the size of the pink polka dot paper in the Papercraft Factory workspace I was able to make the pink spots much smaller that the green green ones though in the collection they are the same size. 

I layered up the cupcake image using the green paper and more white card.  I decided to rough up the green paper and used a file to distress it a little.  Here's a closer look..

I also added some shiny colours to the image using Promarker Metallic Markers.  I love these markers. In the centre I added just one Card Candi to reflect the green layered outside the image. You will see that I added three more Card Candi at the top of the finished card, they are all from the Cotton Candy collection.

I wanted to add some simple bunting to the corner of the card as I really like that look from other handmade cards I have seen all over the web recently.

Making the bunting was very easy.  I cut four squares out of the green polka dot backing paper and then cut a 'V' into each of them making the bunting shape. I wasn't to worried about them being perfect but you could take more time if you wanted completely square bunting. When I had cut them, I found just using them as they were meant they seemed to just disappear into the background of the card. So, I decided to add some simple doodling, drawing around the edge of two of them and then drawing around the dots on the other two.  It's amazing how doing such a simple thing can make the same paper look completely different. I attached them to the card using Collall PVA Glue only at the top of the bunting and when they were dry I folded them a little to give the impression of a little movement.

I was quite pleased with the results.  I think Steffi liked her card so that's the important thing.

Speak again very soon.
Anice xx 

CAS birthday card for my brother

March is always a big month for birthdays in my family, that's my excuse for not showing you the card I made for my brother before now..the middle of April!

Gary, my brother, isn't really bothered about handmade cards. Unless he needs a card then he is very happy to go through my Moms collection of cards she has made rather than go and buy one!

Anyway, I have to admit I made this card at lightening speed and kept it very simple, and flat, so it wouldn't get damaged or cost me a fortune to post!  That's Sisterly love for you..ha ha!

Right less chat, here is the card..

The base card is black, I can't remember which company I got it from but, they are perfect for male cards I have found. I mixed up a few papers and an image from different Funky Hand Papercraft CD ROMS. The backing papers are from Colour Me Happy (Jovial Man Collection) and the Balloon image, I used the pre coloured version of for speed, and the 'Happy Birthday' banner are from Happy Happy Birthday.

I doodled some black lines around each of the backing papers before I layered them on top of each other, then added the image on top of them.  I inked around each of the layers with a dried up black ink pad to give them a little definition.  As the base card was black I found that I didn't need to do any more to it.  I suppose I could have added some card candi or a button or two but..Gary wouldn't have noticed them and I didn't want to waste my stash!!  Awful to admit I know!!

So, there is the card for my brothers birthday this year.  I like to think of it as clean and simple, rather than the fastest card in the west (or North East!)

Right I'm off to get back to designing my next download collections.  Anyone ready for some Wedding papers? I hope so as that's what I am working on!

Speak again very soon.
Anice xx

..and the winners are..

It might be a little later than I promised, I'm afraid I've been a little under the weather, but here are the winners of the Funky Hand Easter Egg Hunt held on the Funky Hand website www.funkyhand.com over the Easter Holiday weekend.

First up are the winners of the Easter Eggs: (Both of these young gentlemen have very kind Mums who asked me to award them the eggs)

Adam C

Jacob C

and the lucky winners of the £5.00 Funky Hand vouchers are:

Helen J

Jocelyn S

Sandra C

Trish V

Michela M

Congratulations to all the winners. Thank you very much to everyone who took the time to hunt down the Easter Eggs over the Easter weekend.  It turned out to be so much fun that we may well do something like it again.  Keep a look out !

Speak to you all very soon.

Anice xx

It's SALE time and you could also win a prize !

It's a nice long Easter weekend so we have decided that you all deserve a nice long Funky Hand SALE!

The Funky Hand SALE on our website www.funkyhand.com is now on. There are great discounts on every item for sale so, go and grab yourself an Easter bargain. 

As well as a SALE going on we also have an added bit of extra fun for you this Easter.  We are having our first Easter Egg Hunt. There are prizes to be won, Two fabby Thorntons Easter eggs are waiting as first prizes for two lucky winners and there a five prizes of £5.00 vouchers off Funky Hand downloads for the runners up.

It's very simple to enter, somewhere on the Funky Hand website from today Friday 29th March until midnight Monday 1st April there will be a picture of a collection of Easter Eggs, they could be anywhere so you need to search every page.  Once you have found the Easter Egg image just click on it and you will be taken to a new page where you can enter your details to be put in the draw for the prizes.  The Easter Eggs will move to a different page each day over the weekend so you need to come back each day and search again!  The more days you hunt for the Eggs the more chances you have of winning one of the prizes. You can only enter once per day, if you enter your details more than once each day only one of them will be entered into the draw.

So, there are two reasons to visit the Funky Hand website www.funkyhand.com over this Easter weekend. Great SALE prices and a chance to hunt Easter Eggs all weekend and be in with a chance to win PRIZES.

Happy Hunting!
Anice xx 

Lots of lovely new downloads!

I'm really pleased to be able to let you know that the new backing paper download 'I Love You Sew' and the seven new digital stamps that I have been hinting to you about are finally on the website www.funkyhand.com

Here's a taster of them all...

This is of course the new backing paper download I Love You Sew

Here's a couple of images of the new digital stamp range I'm A Mug For You

There's a new house on Tree Stump Lane..here's Number Three,

and another new collection called Large Letters, here is one of them LOVE..

There are plenty more new downloads for you to take a look at on the website, they are all very reasonably priced.  The I'm A Mug For You images are £1.29 each and the Large Letters are only 99p.  Pop over the website now to take a look www.funkyhand.com or click one of the images and you will be taken right to that page.

I hope you like the new downloads.  We have alot of new items and ideas that we are working on in the Garden Studio at the moment.  So, many my poor brain can hardly keep track!  As always I will keep you informed all the way..

Speak again very soon
Anice xx

A special day for us..

This post isn't about crafting but as this is my personal blog as well as about Funky Hand I wanted to post about something special. We have had our rescue dog Travis for one year today!

This picture is him a few days after he came to live with us, and he looks the same today!  I have to admit that I didn't consider myself a dog person.  I'd owned a cat many years ago when I was single and she was super easy to look after... but a dog?  Ian really wanted a dog so, I decided that we should give it a go.  We searched and searched all the shelters, near and far, for weeks looking for the 'right' dog.  Then we met 'Chester' as he was called then.  The people who had given him up had left no information about him at all, we didn't even know how old he was but, he seemed to have been looked after OK, he had a micro chip etc.  He seemed to like us, even though he was very very scared in the shelter, and we liked him.  So, he came home. We changed his name to Travis, he never answered to Chester, so maybe that was a made up name?? and started getting to know each other.  He is a Border Collie/Black Labrador mix so that means he's really clever but also pretty mad!!

Things I have learned in the last year:

• Don't worry about trying to keep hair off the carpets/sofa/clothes all the time. It's never going to happen.
• You do get over being licked about 10 times a day, hands and face.
• Expect to have mud in your office & then you wont get mad.
• Remember to look behind you regularly a dog can be very quiet when he thinks you might be going to do something interesting, actually it doesn't even have to be interesting! 
• There is more to life than working all the time.
• I didn't realise that I could love an animal so much and receive that love right back.

So, that's the end of my post. I just wanted to mark this day on my blog so I could look back at in the future and you could know a little about my life outside of the Funky Hand walls.

I promise I'll be back with crafty fun next time..infact it will be very soon. There could be some new digital stamps and a download ready for release if I remember correctly ! :)

Big love
Anice xx

Mothers day..better late than never!

Well, it's been a while since I spoke to you.  But at last I have something to share with you.  Mothers Day was a little while ago and I was able to fit in making cards for my Mom and Ian's Mum.  I thought I'd share Ian's Mums card with you today..my Mums will have to wait as I made it with a yet to be released backing paper download and digital stamp!  They will be available pretty soon so I'll show you my make then..

Anyway, back to the Mothers Day card I can share with you..

I decided to make this card pretty clean and simple so I only used a backing paper from my Colour Me Happy Papercraft Factory CD as a layer behind the image which is the Flower Cake download available on www.funkyhand.com

I had a dig through a bit of my large amount of craft stash and found an old favourite of mine that haven't seen the light of day for a while Prima Flowers.  I used to add these to every card I made and I have no idea why I stopped!  I didn't use brads to fasten the flowers to the card but stuck them down using PVA glue and then added buttons and flat backed pearls as centers.

Here is a closer look at the topper..

 

I coloured the Flower Cake digital stamp with Letraset Promarkers and Metallic pens.  I'm still working on my colouring abilities but it came out OK. The little banner on the cake is great for adding little messages, just leaving blank or colouring.

I've been trying to get back into the swing of making cards so hopefully you wont be waiting to hear from me again for as long as this time!  

I can let you know that we have something special planned for the Easter Holiday on the website so I'll definitely be back before then to give you all the details.

Speak again very soon.

Anice xx