27 February, 2011

Showing My Heart! Ruth's Turn

The weeks are certainly flying by and we are very nearly are at the end of February, and its also my turn to hopefully inspire you with the current challenge set by Jules which is

Show Us Your Heart!

Don't forget that you must include a Funky Hand element somewhere on your creation - this could be from one of the papercrafting cd's or a download or even one of the very new Our Betty stamps! For all the details on how to enter - click HERE for Jules original post which kicked the Funky Fifteenth off.

I've used papers from Craft The Year Away, which matched perfectly with the Funky Freebie for February - I've managed to work the freebie papers in too - can you spot where?!

I've used one of my own templates to make the bag which comes complete with its own Queen & Co fastener and a random brad I found in my stash. The seed beads are also from my stash and I've made the layered flower with a New Year sale purchase of a Sizzix layered flower die and glossy accents added to the hearts.

If you don't own any Funky Hand products there is always a freebie which will complement the month's theme - you can find this month's HERE.

Good luck with the challenge!

25 February, 2011

Jane's Show us you heart!

Hi Everyone! It's my turn (Jane) to show you my heart for this month's Challenge which was set by the lovely Jules.


I fell in love with the 'Love,Love,Love' download when it was released and couldn't resist making a pair of sexy pants to adorn this fun card. I cut the shape free hand by folding a square of paper in half and then cutting it into shape. I added strips of card for the 'Y' and waistband and a couple of little gems.

The label sentiment was created using the Craft the Year Away CD.

We were so chuffed with how many of you took part in last month's Challenge, we hope you can join us again this month. When you have made your Project using at least one Funky Hand paper, add your entry at the end of my post. 

The lovely Anice has also created a gorgeous Heart paper freebie to use if you would like to.

Make sure you come back on the 27th when we will have another gorgeous Heart Project to share with you.

Have a great Friday!

Jane
x

23 February, 2011

I Love You

Good  morning. Today it's my (Deb's)  turn to offer some inspiration for Jules'
Show Us Your Heart
challenge for the Funky 15th
We have had some gorgeous entries so far and you still have plenty of time to get yours in.
Don't forget you do need to use at least
ONE FUNKY HAND PRODUCT
to qualify for the fabulous Funky Hand Prize
and if you don't currently have any Funky Hand products you can find a glorious range of them here
including a fabulous freebie that would be just perfect for this this month's challenge.
So here's what I made:

I am currently going through a bit of a 'Less is More' phase and have kept the focus on the gorgeous papers that I have used from the Craft The Year Away CD - where there is also a huge range of other crafty delights to work with including some gorgeous Digi Stamps like the hearts I have also used.
The Craft the Year Away CD is latest one of 3 CD's in the Papercraft Factory Range and is so easy to use and allows you to be a creative as you want to be - there is a wonderful video demo on the Funky Hand site that explains it all.

I hope you can join us this month - you have until the 14 March so still plenty of time and if you need more inspiration then check out the previous posts to see what the other Funkettes have made and look out for even more to come every couple of days over the next few weeks.
Thanks for popping over.
TTFN
Debs xx




21 February, 2011

Heartfelt wishes from Kathy

Our hostess for the current Funky Fifteenth challenge is Jules, and it's no great surprise that she's said "Show Us Your Heart"!
Read her intro post HERE, and find out how to be in with a chance to win a Funky Hand prize.
As usual with the new look Get Funky! there's a lovely new, limited time only freebie for you to download, click HERE to get it.
You can use the freebie, or any other Funky Hand product you like to make your project - but a Funky Hand Product it must have if you want to qualify for this month's prize!

Now it's my turn (Kathy) to share my "Heartfelt Wishes"card:
This is a 14cm square card blank and the first job is to punch the holes on the lower edge.  I used a 2.5cm circle punch and marked about 1cm in from the two edges and punched those holes in then , because I was too lazy to measure, I just guessed at where the other two needed to be.
Fortunately, my heart punch makes hearts just a fraction smaller than the circle punch.  I could have used my Craft Robo to cut the holes and hearts as an alternative, or used a different shape for the apertures.
Next I chose my papers - as well as this month's Funky Freebie I needed some papers from the February Love set on Craft the Year Away, which are a perfect colour match for the freebie.

 It's easy to resize the papers in Funky Hand's Papercraft Factory - you just choose your paper, send it to the "Workspace", grab the corner and drag it in to the sort of size you want.  This way you can get A4 versions or just teeny weeny versions of all the designs.  I chose the 2 designs I wanted for the hearts, then used the rest of the space to add 2 more designs - a piece of the pale pink paper and a small version of the flowers design (my favourite;)) and then printed all four designs in one go. The screen shot shows how it looks halfway through selecting my papers
 (you can click on any of the photos for a larger version)
 *Punch 4 hearts from a scrap of card and four more from each of the two papers needed to cover them.
 *Adhere one set of paper hearts to the card ones and ink around the edges
* Cut lengths of thread at least 4cms longer at each end of the hearts, if you make the "tails" too short it's fiddly to attach them to the card..  For my cards I use a very fine silver thread, but to try and show more clearly how it works I've made one using some red thread
You need to glue or tape the thread right down the centre of the card side of each heart.  I tend to use a glue and tape combo for this - the tape keeps the thread in place in the middle while the glue allows me to get the thread exactly in the centre points of the top and bottom. 
*Now adhere the second set of paper hearts in place, covering the thread.  Ink the edges.

* Use tiny pieces of tape to hold the heart tightly in the centres of the punched circles, turn the thread as shown in the photo and stick the ends down with glue, trim off any excess.  This will stop the thread slipping through the tape and out of position.
*Use strips of the patterned paper to cover all the ends of thread and bits of tape.
To complete the inside of the card I used a strip of the pale pink paper which acts as a background for the little apertures.  I used a MS hearts border punch to make a decorative edge and used the tiny heart "waste" on the other side.

On the front I used:
Funky Freebie Hearts background, Pink panel is the same as inside the card
Flowers (printed in two sizes) cut from another of the February Love set (CYA)
Pink grosgrain ribbon threaded through slots and knotted.
Punched heart cut from deeper pink paper
Sentiments; "Heartfelt" is cut on my Craft Robo, "Birthday Wishes" is a home-made rub-on
Tiny pink gems to finish.

That's it all done and I hope you like it.
We love seeing your projects so please join in and make something Heartfelt and Funky this month - you have all the way to 14th March to join in.  There'll be lots more projects from the DT to see before then - a new one every couple of days, so do keep coming back!
Don't forget you MUST use something from Funky Hand on your project to qualify for the prize, and don't forget to download your freebie!
Thanks for visiting!



19 February, 2011

It's Anices turn to show you her Heart!

Hello, it's Anice here today with my entry to the Get Funky! Challenge this month.  How are you liking the new system here with us all posting every couple of days?  I think it's working out great as you get to see more of each card and meet the wonderful ladies that are behind the Funky Hand Design Team.  Right, less of this talking and lets see what I have for you this month..

I decided to use my favourite colour green more on this one and move away from the usual red for showing my heart!  I thought I might show you how I actually made this card so here's the steps that I went through to produce this finished card.

I used papers and the heart digital stamp from my latest craft CD Rom Craft the Year Away.  The collection I chose for the papers was Evening in June.. Firstly I printed off everything that I needed on to white card..
The great thing about Craft The Year Away is that you can resize papers in the new work space and overlay the plain digi stamps so I only had to print on to two pieces of card for this creation.  I printed both pages with my printer set on borderless printing so I could just fold the green base card in half to make a A5 card coloured front and back with no need for cutting.

Once I'd folded the base card I got to adding a little black ink around the edge of it to grunge it up a little.  I have to admit I do this alot and why I have my trusty old, almost dried up stamp pad at hand all the time.  My advice to you is NEVER throw out your old stamp pads because when they are no good for actually stamping images anymore, they are great for adding grungy edges to your layers and make them stand out..here my old faithful stamp pad..he's a little battered but I love him!!
Right back to making the card. Next I cut the other printed piece of card into two sections, the heart printed section and my chosen stripes paper..
The next thing I did was to cut up the striped card into three pieces.  I made them smaller in height than the base card and cut off about 1 inch from the width in order that they would be able to be crossed over when stuck down but still have some space between them.  I arranged them on the base card and stuck them down firmly with wet glue
Next I started work on the hearts.  I cut both of them out and then using a sharp craft knife I cut out the centre of the gingham heart which left me with one full heart and an inside and outer edge of the other.
In my madness (as it's not my big strength!) I decided that I was going to do some simple sewing on this card so I made holes on the gingham inner heart at the end of the cross printed on the digital stamp and using Limeade Bazzill yarn,  I created the cross in green.
Next I used a Bazzill In stitch'z template to make the holes for my funky uneven stitches on just one of the added striped blocks.
And here it is once I'd finished the stitching..lets just say it took me a while!!
Then to finish the card I placed the gingham inner heart with foam pads over the complete pink heart and placed the two hearts on the card and stuck them down with wet glue.  And there it was finished..here's another look just incase after all my waffling you'd forgotten what it looked like in the end!

We'd love you to join in with us for the challenge and really there is only two rules, your card needs to follow the challenge , obviously, and you must include at least one Funky Hand paper or other item.  Now, if you don't have any Funky Hand stash yet I have been very kind to you and put a Freebie download paper on my website www.funkyhand.com so you can still join in, you'll find it in the downloads section.  Though whilst you are there you might want to have a look around the website..you might see something that you need!!

Thank you for taking a look at our challenge this month and I hope you decide to join in with us..we all love looking at your creations.

Anice xx 

17 February, 2011

Lou's Show Us Your Heart Make!!

Good morning peeps!!

Well its my turn to share with you my take on our lovely Jules's 'Show Us Your Heart' challenge ( click on the linky to go see Jules post and gorgeous card if you haven't already seen it!).


Urgh, its just a box you think..........but ohhhhhhhh..........


I decided to get all technical for mine and made myself some cute little draws to put little choccies in for my amazing hubby. I adore the new Love,Love,Love download in the shop so that just had to get used along with my trusty cricut for cutting the heart.

At only £3.19 this is such a fabulous download!  there's paper for boys in abundance on it which is great for me as the projects for the boys in my life are the ones I always struggle with!!!

So, a quick reminder that to enter you need to grab your favourite Funky Hand papers and add a heart and then linky your entry HERE on Jules's first post.

If you need a bit of help in the heart department our lovely Anice has been busy creating you all a gorgeous Heart paper freebie to use if you would like to.

And of course, don't forget to pop back and see us on Friday 19th Feb when Anice will be strutting her stuff with her make!!!
Can't wait to see your entries coming in as we were so spoilt last month with yumminess!

Hugs Lou xx

15 February, 2011

GET FUNKY! - SHOW US YOUR HEART!!

Hi Everyone

I hope that you enjoyed the first month of our "new look" Get Funky! Challenge.
 
I know all the Funkettes really enjoyed making and posting their inspirational projects and it was lovely to see so many of you sharing your creations with us. 

Hopefully you get chance to play along this month - 
we love visiting your lovely blogs to see what you do with Anice's Funky Goodies.

Were you our lucky winner or were you chosen to receive one of our coveted blinkies??? 
You will need to check Allison's post below to find out.

-oOo-

This Funky Fifteenth it is my turn (Jules) to set the challenge and I am very predictably asking you to

"Show Us Your Heart"

Now that Valentine's Day has been and gone and we are all "loved up"
I thought it would be nice to continue the love and include a heart somewhere on your creation
....  we can't wait to see what you create.

Of course you do not have to make a card .. .. you can make anything you like .. .. a tag, ATC, scrapbook page, wordbook .. .. perhaps a 3D project

 BUT REMEMBER .. ..
somewhere on your creation there needs to be a heart .. ..
AND .. .. a Funky Hand paper or extra.

For anyone who doesn't have any Funky Hand products at the moment Anice has very kindly produced another freebie paper that is available from the Funky Hand website,
look for the freebie in the downloads section. 

To kick things off here is my creation:





I have used the "February Love" section of the new "Craft The Year Away" CD .. .. .. which the free paper this week matches perfectly.  I have just used a small strip of the free paper - the strip with all the hearts.  It reminds me of strawberry cream chocolates mmmm.....

The anniversary sentiment is from Our Betty "Love N That" clear stamp set.

I love adding flowers to my creations and find that simply rubbing around the petals with an old ink pad brings a bit of extra life to the flower heads.  It isn't such a good look if your ink pad is too new or juicy as the ink is often too strong .. .. but a good old "well used and well loved" one is just pefect.

This time round you are in for a mega treat .. .. because our Funkette numbers have increased 
recently so you can expect even more inspirational up-dates.  Woo hoo!!!

Next up will be my lovely teamie Loopylou - who will be here on the 17th showing us her heart.

So what are you waiting for .. .. ..Get Funky! and show us "your" heart
and who knows .. .. .. you could be the winner of the free download !!!

Have fun!!!

Love Jules xx

Going Round In Circles Winners

Happy Funky Fifteenth of February to you all and thank you so much for the wonderful entries to my Going Round in Circles challenge
This month's winner is
Please contact Anice to collect your download of your choice
And the blinkies this month have been awarded to
Lynne Reed

Rachel Webber

Ruby
Contact Anice and she will get those blinkies for you to wear with pride
Come back shortly when the lovely Jules will be announcing the funky fifteenth challenge for this month
Allison X

11 February, 2011

A Trio of Circle Creations!

Welcome to the last set of creations we have to show you for the 'Going Round in Circles' challenge.  Jenny here, and I have the pleasure of introducing to you two fellow new design team members in the form of their fantastic creations, as well as my own little contribution! I do hope you've had fun playing along with this month's challenge and if you haven't shared your entry with us yet there's still time... you can find all the details and the link to enter here.  

So, first up is Jackie's blooming lovely card!




Don't you just love how she's made the petals by teabag folding circles? So clever! The layered flowers add great dimension and are embellished perfectly with the little butterfly, bling and sentiment! The patterned paper is this month's freebie download, which you can get your hands on here.


Next up is Amanda's super spring card!




Isn't this just so cheery and bright? Such a clever use of the spring fold card by attaching die-cut circles to it. All the papers and the digi images are from Craft the Year Away. The bumble bee is on acetate so he buzzes around! 


Last up it's my smiley card!




I thought this would be good for an alternative Valentine's card or just something to brighten someone's day! All the elements came from Craft the Year Away.  The smilies are the centre of the sun digi image (which you saw on Amanda's card) which goes to show you can often use digi stamps in more than one way! They were then coloured with the brightest pens I could find to match the spotty paper and the sentiment circles were computer generated. 


So that's today's inspiration from us Design Team Newbies! I do hope you've enjoyed our creations and we all look forward to seeing what you create! Make sure you get your entries in by 7pm GMT on 14th February. There will be a new challenge up here on the 15th February which you are going to love (hint hint!) ...so see you then! 

08 February, 2011

Going Round in Circles Challenge - Paula's turn!

Phew!... I finally get to share my first ever DT post for Funky Hand with you - and I can't tell you how excited I've been... I've literally been chomping at the bit waiting for my turn to come along!!!

Funkette Faye sends her apologies to all as she was due to post with me today, however - she promises that she will BURST on to the scene as soon as she has finished moving house and has unpacked her crafting stash.

This month, Allison set the challenge 'Going Round in Circles'.  Regulars to the challenge blog may already know that to be eligible for the challenge draw - your project must include at least ONE Funky Hand design paper - whether that be a download or from a CD.  HOWEVER - if you have no DP's from Funky Hand but would really like to join in, you will find a fabulous freebie in the on-line Funky Hand store which has been designed specifically for this challenge by our 'Chief Funkette', Anice.  Go HERE  to get crafting for this challenge straight away.  So any newbies wishing to join in with the challenge you really have no excuse because you can get the one requisite Funky Hand design paper for nothing - thats nada, nothing, zero pennies. Alison will explain more if you go to her original post HERE which kicked off this months challenge on the Funky Fifteenth of January.

My 'offering' (s) to you today is a card that is sooooo easy to achieve - and if you're like me, you'll get carried away making loads of them.  Basically, I wanted to inspire and challenge you to use up all of those bits of Funky Hand paper left over from your other projects.

card one

Card two

Card three

variations on a theme

See what I mean about getting carried away?!!!  The last three show that you can make a bunch of them - all of which are a variation on a theme - meaning that no two of them look alike.  it wouldn't matter if they did though because you know that if you stick to a colour collection they are all going to compliment each other perfectly (you could give several of them in a gift in a box using the same colour scheme as a present.  Also, it uses all those scraps up.  Similarly though, imagine how many you could make if you purposely printed out 3 different patterns from the same collection - thats loads of cards sorted don'tcha think? 

For card one I've used a 6x6" blank card - (inking the edges is optional) and punched 9 circles using a 1.5" circle punch all from papers from the same collection.  Remember you can also use your nestabilities too.  All of the Good Luck cards are from the 'September Song' collection from the Craft the Year Away CD.  The first one also includes matching buttons which are available on the website in packs sorted acording to the colour collection.  Go HERE to check them out and use with the latest CD following the link for 'buttons'.

Card two has been made using one of the design papers from the 'Just Happy' collection on the 'Dreams Come True' CD as the base card then circles from various collections that appear to compliment each other - it's really fun to play about with various colours collections to see if they fit or not.

Finally, card three was also made by using a design from the 'Just Happy' collection on the 'Dreams Come True' CD - however, I brought in the grey circles from the 'Darkness Lifts' collection on the same CD.

All the images on these cards have been taken from the Paper Craft Factory collection of CDs.   The sentiments on this collection of cards are either stamped or I've used some sentiment toppers from my stash.  However, if you were to purpose make a batch of cards, you could use the new writer facility (new on the latest CD's  - but updates your other Papercraft Factory CD's) to co-ordinate your sentiment to the purpose of the card i.e. thank you, with love, Sorry, Missing you etc etc and because you can type anything, there's no limit to what you can make a card for.  Also very handy for those 'pet names' you might have for each other - of for unusual spellings of childrens names.

These quick cards are especially great if you are having a 'mojo drought'; quick, easy while still looking stylish, and you don't need to use much brain power to make them LOL...  Remember, card making should be fun, so just play about to see what goes with what - but for the best results, use matching papers from the same colour collection.

Right, I hope I've inspired you enough with my DT sample cards that you will join in with the challenge.  For more information about the challenge - and on how you can take part, remember to click HERE where our Allison explains all about it.

That's all from me - hope I did good on my FIRST DT POST EVER (you never know - it could be my last too LOL) and that I didn't waffle too much (yeh - right!)!

I hope to see your cards/more cards in the challenge - and to see if you can come up with a variation on my theme!

Hugs to all

Paula x x x

05 February, 2011

Going Round In Circles - Ruth's Turn!

It's my turn today to show my Going Round In Circles inspiration! How are you liking the new challenge format? As you know, Allison set the challenge - all the details and the link to enter can be found HERE. For each challenge you will need to use a Funky Hand element to be eligible to win a voucher to spend on Funky Hand products and you will need to follow the set challenge.

And to give you a little helping hand, Anice is offering a Funky Freebie!! I've used the paper to make the flowers on my sample below. If you want to snag this paper then click HERE as it is in the download section.

For my sample I've used papers from Colour Me Happy which match the freebie perfectly! I've drawn the handbag template myself and the papers is printed directly onto the cardstock, bit of inking around the edges and some faux stitching too.

The flowers are really easy to make - just layer up 4 or 5 different sized circles (printed double sided) and then scrunch, open out a little, add a brad through the centre and then glue in place!

The sentiment circle is taken from one of Anice's older cd's (be quick - they are at a very good price on the website!) Now That's Funky and has been layered onto a scrap of card for an instant tag.

Hope that has inspired you! Don't forget you have until 7pm GMT on 14 February to enter - so what are you waiting for - get creating and don't forget your funky freebie!

02 February, 2011

A cute Robot going round in circles!

It's time for me (Jane) to share my Project for the Funky Fifteenth 'Going around in circles' Challenge. I have made a card using the adorable Robot digi which is available on the fabulous new 'Craft The Year Away' Papercraft Factory CD which was released last weekend. I used some very funky circles paper to layer my paper pieced robot onto.
I really love paper piecing digital images but don't do it that often as it always involves lots of time spent planning, running the papers several times through the printer to get the correct layers and I usually end up wasting lots of ink and paper to print one small image.


The new Papercraft Factory CD has however changed all this thanks to the new Workspace feature which allows you to print all the elements for your card on one page. It's like a virtual craft mat! All the different papers I used for my Robot card were printed on one sheet with very little planning.
I have taken a screen shot to illustrate what I mean and I will try and explain how I did it!



First I picked the aqua paper from the 'Marching on' collection and sent it to the Workspace, I added the sentiment to the bottom right hand corner of the page.
I went back to the paper collection, picked the lime green paper and sent it to the Workspace, I resized it to a small rectangle in the top left corner. I went back to the paper collection one last time to pick the circles paper and resized it to a larger rectangle in the top right hand corner.
Finally, I sent the digi image twice to the workspace and put one over the lime paper and one over the aqua paper. You can superimpose the images on top of one another and resize them to ensure they are both the same size.
I then printed the page out and cut out all the elements, inking the edges before adding them to my card base. For the robot's antennae, I coloured a wire paper flower stem black and curled it around a pencil and then added the circle on the top which I covered with glitter glue.
Easy peasy! I love the Workspace on the new CD so much, it makes creating cards with lots of different papers so easy!
I hope you have enjoyed seeing how I created my card, you still have time to join in with this month's Challenge and Anice has even created a freebie for you to use which is available here.
Please take a look at Allison's post for all the details on how to join in the fun!
Jane
x