Catching up - Again!

Things are moving along in our household this week. It was my Dad's 60th on Friday and he spent it at the hospital with me, seeing a consultant about my back. I'm now waiting for an MRI scan and things are just plodding along the same - no better but no worse. Mam and I gave him a family gathering at his favourite Italian restaurant on Saturday night, he knew he was going out for a meal but didn't know where he was going or who was going so he had lots of lovely suprises. The biggest suprise of all was that I managed to get through the night, lots of pain relief medication and my tens machine on the whole time we were sitting down meant I was slightly in my own little bubble but at least I was there.

I was really happy last week as I was asked to be on another Creative Team, I'm now working with Jacque Larsen's paper elements and loving it! Also Papercrafts magazine accepted one of my cards for their magazine so I am going to be published and that made me super happy!

These are the cards I made this week with some of Jacque's bits and pieces, I love that they are so suitable for teenage boy and girl cards, especially the boy cards because it's difficult finding suitable resources for those type of cards.

The last card was for my brother who passed his last exams last week and is now a qualified plumber!

Lazy Saturday Morning...

Don't you just love Saturday mornings spent doing not a lot. I'm having a lovely morning catching up with my blog, posting to a few online galleries and submitting projects to magazines in the hope of fulfilling my aim for the year - to be published!

I had some news yesterday about my back. I had an appointment at the hospital to see a consultant, he gave me a full check over and confirmed that it's probable that one or more of the discs has moved forward and has referred me for an MRI scan. So things are moving forward.

This week Kay Miller and Mary Fran released their latest collaboration kit and I love it!! Think fairytale castles, princesses, magical dragons and frog princes.

These are the cards that I've made so far (there is so much in this kit that I'll be using it for masses of cards)

I wanted to share Kate's latest doodles too, she's teamed up with Jacque Larsen again for the Make It Better element kit and they are just so cool and were perfect for this get well soon card.

Prima Hybrid just keeps getting better and better, the store is overflowing with digital as well as traditional goodies and I took delivery of a huge box of flowers and goodies last week.

Start of a new week...

It's Monday again, the sun is shining but my car is still covered in thick frost and it's 2:30 in the afternoon! I haven't been outside but it looks cold.

I have a new blog banner, courtesy of Kay Miller's super fantastic kits. Now, you might think that a kit called mixed vegtables made up of elements to do with carrots and peas would only be relevant if a) you are a greengrocer or b) you grow vegetables. Well, I'm not a greengrocer and I don't grow vegtables, heck I'm even fussy about the vegetables that I eat!! But I've used this kits for loads of stuff. Some things that I can't share just yet, but I used it for my new blog banner and also for this card, it's to give to a friend who is on a diet along with some low fat cupcakes. Don't want to sabotage her diet!

I also wanted to share some of Prima creations. The card and wooden letter were on show at CHA and they use the new Harmony range and the final cardmade from Dianne Rigdon's new Hearts n' crafts kit at Prima Hybrid. I loved making it, lots of fun.

Love cats?

If you love then cats then you really ought to buy Victoria Hutto's Here Kitty Kitty digital kit at Daisie Company. I made the two cutest cards with this kit and I know just the person to send them to.

I've also been playing with Kate's latest collaboration kit, Funky Junky Spring Fling, it's fantastic and each Funky Junky kit that is released just seems to get better and better. I made a card that has an acetate overlay, it reminded me how useful acetate is as I haven't used it in ages. I had to dig down to the bottom of my drawer to find it but was really pleased with the card so it was worth dismantling my workshop to find it!!

Friday Free Template and a dare...

If you are looking for the template to download it's at the bottom of this post :)

Sometimes everything just falls into place and when it does life is happy. I had a lovely email this morning with good news, a message yesterday that made me so happy and even better - some of my hybrid creations were on show at CHA this week, in the Prima Booth. I am a happy bunny (if only my back would get better then I would be a healthy bunny too!)

I started to make a card this morning and as I was making it I checked on the Daring Cardmakers blog to see what the new dare is for this week and it tied in pefectly with the two cards that I was busy with. So here is my take on the dare of 'a card of friendship'.

(Tattered Frannies digi kit by NitWit Collection, Madam Mim lace cardstock used as a clipping mask, Atomic Cupcake inked edge action)

This was my second card using the same kit, just because I fell in love with this sweet little birdhouse!!

My template download for this week is a 6x6 card template, made up of 3 layered flowers. You could use it for a scrapbook layout by filling the smallest flower with a photograph instead of patterned paper. Just resize it to fit your needs.

(Gina Miller Citrus Punk paper and cardstock @Prima Hybrid, The Button Lady button, Prima flower, Atomic Cupcake inked edge action, IKEA paper string)

You can download this template by following this link: http://www.4shared.com/file/37909383/1343c0b1/Flower_Power_6x6_card_template.html

Daring Cardmakers blog challenge

It's been ages since the last time I joined in with the dares but I actually had time this week and here is my offering. I used the Affection Collection digital kit from NitWit Collections, gorgeous colours and textures!

Friday Free Template...

Can you believe how quickly 2008 is zooming along? It's Friday again!! Not that I'm complaining mind, I love weekends :)

This is my latest card, made with a 12x12 template that could be used for a card or a layout if you used photographs instead of flowers, just resize to suit your needs.

(credits here)
Download the template here: http://www.4shared.com/file/37261675/5b40962c/3_circles_12x12_template.html

Have fun with it, link me up in the comments to your creations!!

Prima at CHA...

Loads of Prima sneakies of loveliness being released at CHA this month :) These are some of my favourites that I'll be buying when they hit the shops.

Freebie template...

I finished my template that I mentioned in my previous post and I used it to make this hybrid card for It's A Creative World. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and you can download it by clicking here. (some people don't seem to be able to download it so perhaps try here: http://www.4shared.com/file/36751057/32ef09e7/February_Template_1_Andrea.html
(Paper and elements - Corina Nielsen at Prima Hybrid, Atomic Cupcake inked edge action, Beresfords ribbon))

I used the same kit to make this little hybrid project and I was really pleased that it made it onto the recent PrimaHybrid newsletter.

Other things to catch up on are Kates new doodles over at the Lily Pad, gorgeous stuff!!

(credits here)

(Credits here)

Have you checked out NitWit Collections recently? NitWit and Kay Miller Designs have joined forces and have a joint gallery now, it seemed to make sense seeing as they have a joint design team. This is my latest card made with NitWit's gorgeous kit Above and Beyond

Templates...

I must have had my head in the sand! I've never even looked at a scrapbooking template never mind used one. But I've had so much fun playing with the templates that the other Flower Girls designed for our blog party. I've resized them so that I can use them to make cards, credits are in my gallery over at Prima Hybrid. I was so impressed by them that I've started to make my own template, I needed help from Di for my Flowergirl template so this is a learning curve!! I'll report back on my progress later.

(Be Yourself)

If you are looking for the Flowergirls template, it's down there in the previous post.

Prima Hybrid FlowerGirl blog party

WhooHoo!!!!!!! Today is the official grand opening of Prima Hybrid and those fantastic people, the PrimaHybrid FlowerGirls are hosting a blog party.

Each of the FlowerGirls taking part has a freebie on their blog. Visit their blogs, collect the freebies (templates or quickpages) and use them to make a whole album in the wink of an eye and of course if you need new digital, hybrid or traditional items to play with then hop over to the PrimaHybrid shop and take advantage of the fabulous grand opening offers - 25% off EVERYTHING in the shop. You can't ask for more than that can you! Whilst you are over there why not take a look in the gallery for inspiration overload!!!

I loved designing (with a bit of help from the talented Di) and playing with my template. I have to confess to never using a template before but now I know how easy they are to use you can bet that I'll be joining in the blog party and downloading all theFlowerGirls' templates.

This is what I made with my template:

You can download my template here and don't forget to check out the other FlowerGirls' blogs:

Julie Ann

Danielle

Jess

Kristin

Amy

Melinda

Di

Cathy Pascual

Have fun!!!

Prima Hybrid News...

Grand Opening Celebration at PrimaHybrid.com!

We hope you will enjoy the celebration we have planned on our Grand Opening January 31st!

Here's the scoop!:25% Off EVERYTHING at the shoppe!

See new kits from your favorite designers and check out the growing selection of Physical goodies too! Enjoy a chat on Jan. 31st at 10pm EST in the DigiShopTalk Chat Room to learn all about PrimaHybrid and ask questions. You might find a freebie too! Participate in added challenges! Prizes of both digital and physical products. In the shoppe, pick up your Free True Love Candy Wrapper from Iron Orchid Designs. This is just de-lish!

Remember there is still time to enter the call to be the next PrimaHybrid Flower Girl or Boy!!

Do you want to explore digital and hybrid crafting?...

I've got a fantastic book to tell you about that you just have to buy - I know, I'm always trying to get you to spend money!!

Digital & Hybrid Scrapbooking and Card Making with Photoshop Elements is written for scrapbookers and card makers who want to learn all about digi and hybrid craft. It's a reference guide written in easy to understand English which explains how to do everything you could possibly want to do and unravels the mystery of layers, actions, brushes and filters.

If you want to try digi or hybrid then I think this book is a must, mine lives on my desk and is well used and it's helped me so much to get the most out of Photoshop Elements and not to just stick at altering the size of my photographs.

A little bit of 'enabling'...

Today hasn't been a good day for my poor back so I have consoled myself with window shopping and a few purchases from my favourite digi stores :)

Have I told you all to visit Kay Miller's fabulous digi store? She designs the most fabulous digital kits. Now I'm not a very technical person, but anyone can print out a few papers and cut out a couple of elements and glue them all together right? So that was what I was doing at the weekend with her new kit Love You Bunches.

Whilst I was looking for those images on my hard drive I found this card that i hadn't shared with you, it's made with Kay's All Organic kit.

Now, do you know any boys - or girls who would like to be boys come to that! If you do then you need to go to Daisie Company and buy Don Tate's rocket digi kit. It has the sweetest rockets, spaceships and spacemen that are just perfect for boy things. What are you waiting for? Go and buy!!!!!!

Over at Prima I've been playing with all sorts of lovely goodies and there are plans afoot for excitement next week. Last week my Mam's Uncle died, he was the last of 4 brothers and the family found this photograph that had never been seen before. It's my Great Grandmother and her 4 sons, the one at the front on the right was my Grandad. I did a bit of touching up in Photoshop and made the picture into these lovely cards for my Mam to send to our other relatives so that we all have a copy of the photograph.

I've just got time to share this card that has sat half finished in my pile of 'stuff' for over 2 weeks but I finally finished it off and I love it. It was one of those things that you start without a plan and can't quite see where it's going or what to do next. I'm glad I left it and came back to it.

It's Kate Hadfield Day...

Kate has been doodling up a storm over at The Lilypad making funky animal pal doodles for valentines day. I loved playing with the doodles to make this Lovebug card and then tried my hand at gift wrap and a gift card:

She's also made the sweetest little bag toppers for sending small treats to loved ones and I'm so excited that Kate's used my photograph of the bags I made up for her packaging.

These are so simple to make up, I used some of the little bags that I put cards in to keep them safe from grubby fingers and just added a few love hearts sweets and chocolate hearts and stapled the toppers over the bag.