No wonder I don't blog often

The thing about my cat Molly is that she's quite independent.

But when she wants something, she'll really go out of her way to get it.

"No blogging for you!"

It's no wonder I don't tend to blog frequently.

Hide and Seek

I finished this card a good few days ago but have only gotten around to posting it now.

"Okay, for my dare we're heading to the playground for a game of Hide & Seek.
I'd like you to make a card which has a hidden component of some sort.The hidden part could be a tag, a concealed photo, message or something along those lines, maybe a pull-out or pop-up.Anything goes as long as there's something extra for the recipient to find on your card that's not immediately visible when they open the envelope."

After seeing some of the design team's and other peoples' fantastic cards, I feel a bit sheepish about showing this one! ^^; But ah well, at least I have other peoples' cards to use as inspiration in the future. The little circle with the "stitching" and pink ribbon pulls out to reveal a message.

(Yes, the recipient of this card likes pink :])

Mmm, cupcakes...

I made chocolate muffins earlier today, AND this cupcake-themed Birthday card.

I've always had a (very) sweet tooth, after all.

I COULD have waited til morning to photograph my new card in good outdoor lighting, but I'm too impatient, so 10pm indoor room lighting it is ;)

You can't see it because of the bad lighting, but the upper light pink panel is dry embossed with flowers. I've never embossed before, so I was really pleased with how it turned out (particularly when you consider that I was using the negative of a punched shape as a stencil and the other end of an old paintbrush as a stylus, teehee).

The cupcake is plain ol' inked up cardboard, with white felt to look like icing. Gold, pink and purple seed beads were stitched on to resemble sprinkles. I wanted a change from the cards I've been making lately, so I tried to go for bright colours for that cute, sweet look (pardon the pun).

This card was made for Samm's Birthday card challenge. Hope you like cupcakes as much as I do! :)

Another Birthday card

It's another friend's Birthday in a few days time, so I made them this card

I've seen this design on a few different blogs. I always seem to like cards that are a little bit out of the ordinary. Partly because sometimes it's fun to watch the recipient try to open the card with a confused look on their face ;)

The papers are freebies that I downloaded from Sugar Snap Scraps - however, my printer is being decidedly irritating - the orange is meant to be a beautiful, luscious dark brown, while the purple is meant to be a lovely blue. Cleaned the print heads no less than 4 times and it's still being fussy. The colours still kind of work, but the result would have been so much better in the original colours =\

There's a challenge at the moment at Tracy's Happy Place, to make a card using new items you received for Christmas. On this card, I've used the gold embossing powder my sister gave me. I've never embossed anything before - considering I used glue instead of an embossing pen, and a regular old clothes iron to heat it, I don't think it turned out too badly LOL.

I hope the recipient likes her card, even though it didn't come out as well as I would have liked - ever had one of those days when you can't seem to do anything right?

I'm having a whole week of those.

First post, first DCM dare :)

I'm new to blogging, so let's see how it goes lol.

I've admired the work at the Daring Cardmakers blog for a while now, so I figured it was about time I joined in!

The first little extra dare of the new year is linking in with our main dare last Friday- still on the 'New' theme - think of it as a 'double dare!':)We want to see your Crafty Christmas Presents ! Make a card using a new toy you had for Christmas, or in fact any crafty goodies that you received. Its a great chance to try out all your new toys/papers/embellishments! We'd love to see what crafty presents Santa dropped into your stocking....

It was my friend's Birthday a few days ago, so I got around to making his card. I tend to have a bit of trouble making "masculine" cards - it's too easy to throw a few flowers on if it's looking plain! But I don't think I did too badly with this one. Either way, I think he'll appreciate it.

(Modest camera + bad photographer = poor photo. Sorry. :])

I used some of the "Zany" 7gypsies stickers a friend gave to me for Christmas, while the chipboard elements on the card were bought with money I was given for Christmas, so that kind of counts :) Perhaps my favourite part of this card is the stamp that I bought yesterday with some Christmas money. Sure, the stamp will only ever be on the back of the card, but if you ask me, it's well worth the $10.45 I spent on it, if only for the laugh value ;)

I'd like to be able to say that this card was born of my own incredible imagination, but I must confess that the idea came from here. Love that design! I too put a little pocket in mine, as it's perfect to slip a gift certificate from David's favourite store into. (Though having stripes on the front of my card too is purely coincidental - the rest of my papers are just too girly! xD)

Loved participating in this dare, and I really hope David likes his card - here's to more DCM challenges to come! :)