Warning...controversial post..

Aha! Daring Cardmakers posted a challenge I'm equipped to do, and sitting in my workroom last night was very comfortable - we moved our sofas out yesterday in anticipation of the new stuff being delivered today. Believe me, when you're fat and forty-something, lolling on a floor cushion is just a small taste of things to come in terms of immobility and aching joints! So, mindful of this warning, I gratefully sat at my work table and made this card, featuring farm animals. Would you note the use of a ridiculous amount of the pink polka dot paper too please - well, it's a 4" square card, so I'm still not throwing polka dot paper around. But my largesse is due entirely to John at the Crafthouse Press who read the post in which I refuse to use up my paper and he sent me some more. We've worked together, he knows how ugly it could be if I panic! Kind, huh, and I am really thrilled at his thoughtful gesture.

Now obviously, because I'm terribly vain and wanted my family to be in awe of me, (yeah, but hang on, that was never a realistic outcome) we watched about 40 minutes of Craft Day on QVC on Sunday, before we left to join friends for a day out. My family was bored rigid, particularly as we quickly established that the products I'd been playing with weren't due to be on till much later. We watched Julian and Leonie present some metallic, embossed and die cut card stock that come as collections so you can make loads of cards that have matching detail etc. The stock is fab, wonderful rich colours and some great images (even a christmas kit!). But, and here's the controversy - if you fold a piece of A4 in half to form a card that's already printed with a frame and blah, then push out a die cut image printed and embossed in matching colours and to this add a foiled, printed, die-cut greeting, can you really say that you 'made' the card? Is adding a coupla foam pads and a bit of neatening a kiss-cut die shape really a craft? Don't get me wrong, the stuff was fabulously rich looking, and as good a quality as they promised for sure, beautifully presented, and Leonie's samples were wonderful; I liked it all, but isn't it, well, erm, cheating? I know they sell shed loads if it and I know therefore that thousands of people like it, but I want to know if it is really crafting? However much I like it all, I never buy it. I feel like it would be cheating. Where did I get this idea from - and is it ridiculous? Probably. I've experienced craft snobbery, and am ashamed to think that I'm promoting it by mentioning how I feel about these products, but hey - you can rely on me to have an opinion! And here's the bit about this argument that so proves that I'm a woman - just because I won't use it, don't ever let that stop you from sending me a card made with it - I really like it! We had a lovely day out by the way, and the non-crafting friends on whom I vented my theory were polite enough to stay awake just long enough to ask why it mattered. Oh. I have to come back and answer that in another lifetime, when I've thought of a response!

Several of you like the Scooby stuff - here's another - made with the background papers and stamps from the Crafthouse Press again. (used Pro Markers to colour it, I am so on trend, thanks to Cricut Queen's gift!)