As I mentioned, it was my DS’s birthday last week. He was 6 and he loves jokes! So when I’d spent some time scratching my head about what to do for a card, I thought I’d go with a joke (if not a very good one!) and came up with this:

Supplies used: Kraft card stock, Basic Grey Archaic collection pack, Basic Grey Archaic Chip Stickers (my last one – boo hoo!), Colorbox Chalk Inks – creamy brown, chestnut roan and olive, Memento Tuxedo Black and some little individual letter stamps – mine are wood mounted on pegs and nameless but you might want to try these, not such a nightmare for lining up!

While I was looking for a dinosaur joke, I came across this strawberry one which made me smile, so made one for this too (the punch line is ’strawberry jam’ btw!)

Supplies used: Cosmo Cricket Jack’s World paper crafting kit, Kars Fruity stamp, Copics for colouring,  Memento and letter stamps as before.

BTW this is my favourite joke of all time – it’s bad but I love it, kills me everytime! Doesn’t make a good card though

Three pieces of string are out for a walk one day. The sun is shining and as they pass the pub they stop for a drink. The first piece of string takes the orders and goes inside…
He walks up to the bar and asks the landlord for 3 pints of beer
The landlord looks at the string and says, “We don’t serve your kind in here.”
The string walks outside and tells the others what has happened.
The second piece of string says, “Don’t worry I’ll sort this out” and heads into the pub.
He walks up to the bar and says, “Look, please may I have 3 pints of beer now!”
The landlord looks at the second string and says, “I told your friend, we DON’T serve your kind in here.”
So the string walks outside and tells the others what has happened.
The third piece of string ties himself into a knot, frays up the ends of himself and walks back into the bar.
He walks up to the bar and says, “I’d like 3 pints of beer please.”
The bartender says, “Look! I told you before we don’t serve your type. You’re one of those strings who was in here earlier aren’t you?”
The string says, “Nope! I’m a frayed knot.”

Happy crafting

Jane

Sorry I’ve been ‘missing in action’ – it’s been a crazy two weeks of new stock mountains, and stock taking here are craftie-charlie HQ!

On Friday we had a party to go to of a family friends little boy – I had no cards made and zero time to make one in   But buying one is not an option with this job!!!

Short of time, I rifled through the Basic Grey card kits and pulled out the June Bug one – brilliant! All you need is some adhesive, and black & white pens – it includes full instructions and everything else you need. It’s definitely a great short cut (or a fab gift to get someone into cardmaking) but is probably classed as cheating if like me, when asked where you bought it from, you go “oh no, I didn’t buy it, I made it” and then enjoy all the praise

With the party over, I had a nice evening in front of the TV wiping up the rest for future use

Happy crafting

Jane

Hope you’ve all had a great week – it’s been crazy here but I thought I’d grab 5 mins to tell you about all the fab things that we saw at last weeks Trade Show in Birmingham.  We had a fab time looking at all the gorgeous new products – we’ve bought loads and it should all be arriving in the next month or so – keep your eyes peeled! Here are just some of the great things on their way:

The fantastic new Tim Holtz Alterations Sizzix line – words can not describe how excited I am about this one! the Sizzix stand was our first stop at the show so we could get this ordered! You can see the whole range here – I’m having a butterfly and a bricked/woodgrain embossing folder set 

Loads of new stacks and embellishments from DCWV including the beautiful Mariposa (which a lot of you have been asking about) , the cool and classy Linen Closet and vibrant Mango Frost.

We spent loads of time watching the beautiful and v talented Claudine Hellmuth at work – we have her new line for Ranger Claudine Hellmuth Studio coming soon. If  you’ve not seen Claudine’s work before there’s loads of information and ideas here

Lot of new stamps from Australian company Darkroom Door – these are really unusual and absolutely stunning.  I particularly loved these photo stamps.

Even more Basic Grey – the new lines just keep coming! Green at Heart – cute creatures and brights, Kioshi – sophisticated relaxed colours and geometric designs, old world elegance with Cappella and pets and patterns with Max & Whiskers!

In a little departure for Craftie-Charlie we are also going to start stocking magazines – starting with the brilliant Craft Stamper.  Stock of the April issue is due any day now

Phew! I feel tired out all over again

Happy crafting

Jane

Oh my goodness – it’s the 27th of November! Where does the time go?   I have actually managed to get some Christmas cards finished this week. I seem to have an ‘in progress’ problem at the moment -  I have lots of half finished piles of Christmas cards but I keep getting distracted   I saw this lovely card last week – that vellum is just gorgeous. I’ve used the same idea in this card (don’t look too closely at the white heat embossing – I’m not a tidy person!!)

I have used Bazzill Bling cardstock for the snowflake but decided it just wasn’t bling enough for Christmas, so added some Stardust stickles!  And look, I didn’t just finish one – I have a whole pile of these babies

Supplies used:

Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses 6×6 Pad, Eskimo Kisses buttons, Bazzill Bling Glass Slipper, Cuttlebug Ice Crystal Cut ‘n Emboss, White Vellum, Versamark Ink Pad, Ranger White Embossing Powder, Hero Arts ‘Holiday Sayings’ stamp

Happy crafting

Jane

We’re off to a birthday party for one of my DD’s friends shortly. Little girl cards are a challenge for me, they never seem to come out ‘little girl’ enough!  Saying that,  I LOVE these chipboard letters covered in Distress Stickles – they look sugar coated

Yummy!

Supplies used:

Tim Holtz Distress Stickles Worn Lipstick, O’Scrap Sans Serif Chipboard alphas, Basic Grey Urban Prairie paper, Basic Grey Button (most likely Indian Summer – I keep them all mixed up in a big tub!) , SU! Regal Rose Grosgrain ribbon & cardstock

Happy crafting

Jane

New stuff makes me happy so I’m pretty delighted at the moment!  We’ve got loads of new items in from Cosmo Cricket and Basic Grey including the much anticipated Christmas 2009 ranges Eskimo Kisses and Jolly by Golly.

Go on take a peak…!

I always find masculine cards tricky but one of my favourite places to turn is the Basic Grey Archaic range – it’s just perfect for all ages so I really use up every scrap.  I’ve made this card for Charlie’s DH whose birthday it is this week – it’s a bit on an ‘in-joke’ as actually he’s the youngest of the four of us as he likes to remind us ALOT!  The card is 14.5cm square and I didn’t have a chip sticker small enough left so I’ve stuck one of the adhesive stickers from the collection pack to a piece of blank chipboard and cut it out by hand – I hope he appreciates the effort

Supplies used: Basic Grey Archaic collection pack & buttons, A4 kraft card, Colorbox Chalk Ink ‘chestnut roan’, Basic Grey mini chipboard letters, Glossy Accents for sticking my buttons!

Happy crafting

Jane

Finally got a chance to play with the gorgeous MME today!  I decided to have a go with the Bloom & Grow – I think the colour palette is a little more ‘me’ but I’m sure I wont let that stand in my way of trying the Wild Asparagus too )  Charlotte and I are sharing a set of the Basic Grey Beta Series stamps – don’t tell her I’ve used them already!!!

This is a fun little card for my niece who’ll be 10 at the end of the week. I hope she likes it – I had such fun with it I made two variations!  The patterns are great to work with – I don’t stamp onto patterned paper much, I get stressed combining patterns but it was a breeze with these…

Supplies used:

MME Bloom & Grow 6×6 paper pack, Basic Grey Beta Series stamp set, Co-ordinations cardstock (sorry I can’t tell you which colours – I got so many oranges out I got all mixed up!), Fiskars Scalloped Lace Border Punch, SU! Scalloped circle and 1 1/4″ punches, Fiskars shaper cutter for the 2″ circle, Piggy Tales Chicken Little Ribbon.

Not that I’m obsessed or anything but this is another sketch from clean & simple stamping!

Happy crafting

Jane

My little boy was at a party today so it was small boy birthday card time again )  I was a little short of inspiration yesterday so after having a browse round I was very taken with this Clean and Simple sketch challenge from SplitCoastStampers. A big part of the challenge was that there wasn’t actually a sketch that I could find (!) so you had to imagine it in your head based on the various samples!!!  It is however a great layout which I can see myself using a lot so expect to see more of this one.

The card is approx 6″ square and I’ve used a 1.5″ circle punch for my circles.

Supplies used: Basic Grey Archaic collection pack, SU  Always Artichoke (I think) as base,  Bazzill Mystique cardstock, Basic Grey Archaic Buttons, Chipboard and Foam squares for a little lift!, SU linen thread, 5 is from Basic Grey Offbeat Chipboard Alphas.

I thought that I’d make another one (to have in for emergencies!) while I had all the stuff out.  This is the budget version as I used the front cover from the collection pack – waste not, want not! The circles are a little smaller (1″) Supplies as before )

Happy crafting

Jane

well, not me but my card!

I’ve finally had a chance to play with my Basic Grey Wisteria ‘Pom’ stamp and it all got a bit distressed. With the soft watercolour flower, the straight lines I had originally just didn’t look right. So I restamped doing the sentiment in distress ink to get a slightly soft edged look, roughed up the card edges with scissors and inked the edges of the card blank.

If you fancy having a go at distressing – last week was ‘distress’ week on the Hero Arts blog with Jennifer McGuire and Tim Holtz among others and there are some fantastic videos. Here’s a link to Monday )

Supplies used:  Basic Grey Wisteria Pom Bitsy stamp,  Penny Black Salutions clear stamp set,  Ranger Distress Inks – Dusty Concord,  Milled Lavender, Weathered Wood,  Ranger Water Mister, Colorbox Chalk Ink Olive Pastel, SU Old Olive cardstock for base, DCWV Latte for mat, green Copics marker for stem.

Happy crafting

Jane