Happy to be home!

Phew! the last few weeks, actually the last few months have been really hard work. I never seem to get a moment to just sit and relax day or night! We arrived back from Peterborough and our Ideal World Craft Day show late last night after having other meetings to go to down there, a three odd hour drive home and a stop at Ians parents on the way up to have some Tea with them. When we got back our house alarm was going off. Nothing was amiss in the house so it must have been set off by the earthquake the night before..oh dear I bet our neighbours just loved us!!

I enjoyed my show on Ideal World yesterday but as usual I never have enough time to really show everything on the CDs and my demos have to be done at break neck speed which I find quite a challenge as I'm not a speedy crafter. Hopefully if you caught it yesterday you got a reasonable idea of what the new CD Now that's Funky is all about.

With all this business I have been seriously neglecting showing you the great cards that I have received lately from my wonderful customers. One I just had to share with you is from a lovely young man called Xavier who is only eleven years old and is already making fantastic cards..



I think this is just fab so I wanted to share it with you. He made it using papers from the It's Funky Too cd whilst he was crafting with his Mum Michaela. Thank you so much Xavier for sending me this card when I received it, my day was really brightened.

Recently I have been recieving a number of cards made with my papers from customers and it has made me think about getting a collection together and putting a gallery here so everyone can enjoy them. So if you have made a card with Funky Hand papers that you would like to share, email a picture of it to me on support@funkyhand.com and I will look into pulling something together. I know I would love to see your creations!

Well that's about all my news for today. Speak again soon.

Coming up for air...

Wow the last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind with the trade show and then releasing my new CD Now that's Funky. All I have to get done now is my appearance on Ideal World tomorrow and I might be able to stop for a moment. Some how I don't think that is going to happen though....

I have been working away on card demos for my show tomorrow and then Ian drops out that it's his nephews birthday so can I make him a card! Talk about the fastest card maker in the west. I couldn't let Adam not have a handmade card for his 5th birthday but I'm afraid it was made at lightening speed..



The paper and letters are all taken from my new CD Now that's Funky and the happy birthday stamp is by Penny Black.

I have been very lucky recently, I have received quiet a few fantastic cards in the post from my lovely customers. I promise as soon as I have finished this mad busy phase I will share them all here so everyone can enjoy them as much as I have.

Now, I have a 12"x12" scrap page to finish and a visit to the post office to make to send out orders from yesterday before Ian gets home and we set off to Peterborough for the show tomorrow so, I have best get on with it. Speak soon.

Here it is at long last!


Now that's Funky my brand new craft Cd is now available for sale on my website. Pop over and take a look at the new papers and extras.

So many things to tell you..

As I said in my last post we are back in Newcastle after the trade show at the NEC but to tell you the truth neither Ian or my feet have touched the floor since we stepped back through the door! The trade show was a great success and we met some very interesting people and had some very interesting meetings..can't tell you much about them now but hopefully in the future we will have some exciting news!
I thought you might like a look a me on our 'tiny' little stand just before the show opened on Sunday.


That cheesey smile was to cover my nerves..I think I had it on pretty much the whole show!!

Whilst we were working away at the show I was asked to take part in the Craft Day that is taking place on Ideal World on Wednesday 27th Feb (yes that is next Wednesday..I never have much time to get my demos organised!!) My section of the show is from 12 noon till 1pm. I will be premiering my new CD 'Now that's Funky' which should be available on my website over the weekend (crossed fingers..I will keep you posted on the exact date) On the show I will also be presenting my other CDs V Funky and Funky Seasons. Also on the show will be some great paper packs from Crafters Companion, I met Sara from Crafters Companion at the trade show and she hopefully will have had time to print off some of my new CD designs on the different paper mediums that will be available. I hope you can join me for the show as it's a craft day there is free postage and packing on all products.

Before I went to the trade show I had a spare hour for some crafting and ended up having a go at a bit of altered art. For Christmas I bought Ian a mug which came in a lovely tin which was just crying out for me to play with!. Here's a before picture,



and this is what I came up with...





We ended up using it to keep all the business cards we collected at the show safe so we didn't lose them.

Well this about the longest post I've had time to do in a while, I still have loads of other things to tell but I think I will save them for another time. Speak again soon.

It's madness here at Funky Hand Towers!!

We arrived back from Craft Hobby and Stitch Trade show yesterday evening after a rather difficult journey back to Newcastle from Birmingham in freezing temperatures and fog!!
The show was an amazing success..our heads are spinning after all the retailers (large and small) crafters and generally great people from all over the world we met there!!

This is just a quick message to say we are back as I have a huge amount of work to do to catch up with all the orders we have from the show. I just wanted to let you know that I will be taking part in the Craft Day on Ideal World next Wednesday 27th February. I will be launching my new CD 'Now that's Funky' It's not on our website yet but we are hoping to get it on there before the show. The show on Ideal World is such short notice that I don't even know what time I'm going to be on yet! I will update you when I know!! I will be back to tell you more about the trade show and all the exciting things that happened there soon...

I'm in print!

If you have this months Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine you will know that there is a 'Designer Cards' book free with it. On page 6 you will find a card that I designed! Here is a scan of the pages if you haven't seen the mag...



I made this card so long ago I had almost forgotten what it looked like!! The papers used are all from my Funky Seasons CD. Anyway it's fun seeing something you have made in a magazine..not so great seeing a picture of myself though !!

Everything is up side down here as we enter into the final days before going to the trade show at the weekend. I have so much stuff to get finished my head is spinning.. best get back to it, speak soon.

Somethings are just more important..

I have been running around the last few days like a chicken with it's head cut off... lovely image I know! Trying to get everything ready for the trade show and launching the new CD. Then in the midst of all my madness I received a lovely email from one of my customers Gerry, who teaches a wonderful group of special needs students. She makes cards with them and I'm honored to find out that they use Funky Hand papers when they craft. Gerry was kind enough to send me some images of the cards they have been making together and I thought I would share some of them with you.






I think they are just great! I want to say a big thanks you to Gerry for sharing them with me so I can share them here and I also want to say hello to Gerry's students, Alisdair, Mark, Samantha, Lorna, Pat, Sue and Glyn who are all having so much fun making cards. Keep up the good work, I know Gerry is very proud of you all !!

Hearing about how much Gerrys class are enjoying card making has made me realise that I need to get back in my craft room a bit more often as I'm starting to forget that is why I started designing, because I love card making and scrapbooking. But unfortunately just for the near future Anice has to continue to be a dull girl and focus on work at least I get to see the crafting other people are doing though !!

Ohh I'm naughty!!

I have a hundred things that I should be doing..infact probably 200 but this afternoon I just couldn't stay out of my craftroom. I have purchased some cuttlebug embossing folders as I have been seeing them everywhere and have been greedily looking at all the great creations everyone has been making with them. I haven't had any time lately to play. (My lovely Bind it All has still never been out of his box!) so I stole about 20 mins this afternoon and made this little card. It's a left over base card from another card I made recently which was just sadly laying on my craft desk..unloved!! The words on the card are cut out from the 'You' embossing folder. I embossed a paper that I printed on ages ago and never go round to using. So you could say this card is a left over card!




Everything is finished on my new CD 'Now that's Funky' and I'm about to send the designs off to the printers for the inserts and the CDs to be pressed. I am launching it at the Hobby Craft and Stitch Trade show at the NEC which runs from 17th to 19th Feb. That not this weekend but the next! Nothing like leaving everything to the last moment. The plan is once we are back we will launch it on the website. It's all very exciting but stressful too! There are lots of fun things we have planned for the website over the next few months so keep an eye out here because this is where you will hear about it first. Infact I keep getting told off because I tell things here before we are ready..I'm just not good at keeping secrets!!
Hopefully I will be back before the trade show with more creations as I have big plans to make bind it all books of my paper collections for the trade show.. when I'll fit it in I don't know especially if I am here..best get on!!

The trials of creating male cards and the joys of having such lovely customers..

I don't know why is it so difficult to make a card for a man. I suppose if I look at my craft stash there is alot of Prima flowers and pretty ribbons, maybe I just don't have the right stash. But when I make a card for any of my male relatives or friends I don't want to stick a football on the front or an image of a golf bag so I suppose I need to think more outside of the box.. so, here is the card I made this morning for our friend Andy who has his birthday on Saturday. He's quite a trendy chap so I hope that he approves of this card. I don't think he visits my blog so he wont see this before he gets it but if I'm wrong.. sorry Andy!




Everything for the card has come from my new CD 'Now that's Funky' which will be available (crossed fingers) on my website at the end of February. I printed the backing for the card directly onto the base card so the design goes onto the back as well. Using another paper I cut out the arrow in Photoshop. The circle and 'Happy Birthday' topper are both straight off the CD. I used a black Sakura glaze pen to add faux stitching around the edge of the card and to outline the arrow. I used another pen in Terracotta to put the dashes around the circle. To just give it a bit of texture I added three adhesive pearls by Papermainia to the circle sentiment. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, Ian might hate it when he gets home and I'll have to come up with something else but at the moment that's the one!!

Yesterday I was so suprised to receive a lovely card in the post from one of my customers who had purchased my first CD The Funky One, I thought I would show it to you as I think it is great.. thanks very much Lorraine you're a star!



I am getting ready for the Craft Hobby and Stitch Trade show at the NEC, Birmingham on the 17th-19th February. I'm exhibiting for my second year in the Bright Sparks Pavilion (Stand BS21) if you are attending come and say hello! I am frantically trying to design posters for the stand and everytime I come up with something I change my mind! The printers are standing by waiting for the designs but at this rate I think they might be waiting for while!! I learned a good lesson last year at the exhibition 'Don't wear heels' so this year I will be wearing my trusty Doc Martin shoes that have seen me through many years wear as a part-time waitress amongst other things (that's a story for another time!) and still look as good as new!! I came here to have a break from designing posters, finishing my CD and tidying my craft room, guess I have to get back to work..speak again soon.

Wow! Nightmare journey home yesterday!

We travelled back from Ideal World in Peterborough yesterday after the show and the A1 was closed in a couple of sections because the wind had blown lorries over..eek! So Ian and I had to try to get home a different way, but as the A1 is pretty much the only road going North it was terrible. The journey usually takes about 3 1/2 hours.. we were travelling for 6 hours. I was so tired when we finally arrived home I couldn't even be bothered to eat.. now that is not me!!

The craft show went well yesterday, Dean the presenter with me was a madman but a very funny one! We were laughing all morning before and after the show! Thank you to everyone who sent in emails..I have to admit I tend to forget that people are actually watching (Helps with the nerves!) but it's really great to get messages and such complimentary ones about my products too..it really made my day!

I thought I would share the cards that I made on the show yesterday here as I had to steam through them and I don't think you get that much of a good look. The first one I made...


This card is made with papers and toppers from my V. Funky CD Then next I demonstrated making was this one...


It was made with papers from my CD Funky Seasons
and finally this was the third demo I did..



This card was made with papers and extras from It's Funky Too

The jobs for today are piled up to the ceiling so I have to get back to work. My biggest job is getting my new CD finished off and I am pleased to say I have finally decided on a name for it... drum roll... 'Now that's Funky' crossed fingers it should be available in Mid to late February, but not if I don't get back to work finishing it!!