Happy New Year

Hi Blog friends

Sorry I haven't been around much. You know how it is, there is so much to do at Christmas. I hope your Christmas went well and that your plans for NewYear celebrations are shaping up. We are going to meet my sister in a hotel near Birmingham (it is about half way) for a bit of a catch up for a couple of days.

Now what do we all need to make at this time of year? Yes that's right - thank you cards. I needed eight. Here is my design.

I wanted to keep it quite simple. I started with 6 x 6 cream card blanks. The dies I used were some of Sue Wilson's apart from the sentiment which was from Spellbinders. The embossing folder was from Crafter's Companion. I still don't have my Grand Calibur so I am limited to the size of embossing I can do. I shouldn't have to wait too much longer.

This shows the detail of the dies. 

I would like to enter this for Pixie's Snippets playground.

That is all for today. I don't know when I will be back. The next thing I need to tackle is some wedding invite samples for my husband's niece. 

I hope you all have a wonderful 2015.

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

Last Post before Christmas

Hi Bloggers

I have been quiet for a few days as I have been ill, nothing serious but enough to make me feel rubbish and and unable to concentrate. I am starting to feel a bit better now but I am all behind with my Christmas preparations. So I don't think I will be posting again until after Christmas.

This is a card I made for the class I have been working with this year. The Santa is a wooden embellishment. The wreath was made with a Tim Holtz Sizzix die.

Do you remember this card that I made for a Christmas cake?

Well here is the cake, I think I did well out of this trade.

I entered this card in the Visible Image Craft Stamper cover stamps competition and I won.

Here is my prize I really want to get going with these stamps but it will have to wait until after Christmas now. 

I want to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and I want to thank you for all your visits and all the comments.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Last Minute Christmas Cards

Hi Bloggers

How are your Christmas preparations getting on? It really isn't long now and there is so much to do. This is not helped by your husband saying I need 12 Christmas cards for people at work. So that was my Sunday afternoon sorted out for me. We could have bought cards but that feels like cheating.

I made one of these from a recycled card and the top of a chocolate box. All the gold card I used was retrieved from my scrap box. It did take a while to find enough scraps of a reasonable size. I would like to enter this card for Pixie's Snippets Playground Number 155.

I made 9 of these the image was from one of the Kanban  sheets I won recently. The paper was in my stash and the snowflakes were punched  from the waste from the inserts. 

I really didn't have long so they had to be quick cards and suitable for a man to send. Sorry this is just a quick post today. I am struggling to keep up with the blogging while being so busy at home I know that you understand.

 I couldn't be too cross with him as these were waiting for me when I got in from a work meal on Friday. Bless him.

I hope the rest of the week is good to you. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

A Fairy Just for You

Hi Bloggers

Aren't things getting madly busy? I keep forgetting things that I am supposed to be doing. This isn't helped by us having lost out entire address book with the demise of our old computer. Don't you just wish you had an old fashioned  paper version sometimes?

I have made this card to enter the  Butterfly Challenge No. 30 All kinds of Fairies. I managed to get some free  fairy stamps on the December issue of Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine. So with a little free time I was good to go.

This card started with the beautiful paper on the top layer it just had so much fantastic detail. The back sheet was from a pack by DCWV it is pearlised so it shines.

I stamped the fairy with black archival and then I heat embossed her with some embossing powder that I mixed myself from black and silver powder. I coloured the wings by painting them with distress ink and them covering that with mica powder. 

I cut some ivy with my Sue Wilson dies from white paper and them I inked them with a green distress ink. 

So that's it for today. All the wrapping and address finding is beckoning.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Secret Santa

Hi Bloggers

How is your week going? Mine has been a bit up and down but then most weeks are. There is still so much to do for Christmas. I hope your preparations are going well.

I made this card to as an entry to a  competition on the Visible Image Facebook page using the cover stamps from the December issue of Craft Stamper magazine.

I had wanted to go in for this competition for a while but I had no idea what to do with the three free stamps. A friend of mine came round for a crafty afternoon and we were using my number dies on the project we were making and the idea to use the date struck me.

 

I started with an A4 piece of Kraft card and I made the largest square card blank that I could. For the red mat I stamped the footprint stamp with CS Perfect Medium and heat embossed them with a clear sparkly embossing powder. Once this was done I used two shades of  red distress ink to reveal the footprints.

The green mat was created with the HO HO stamp (I nearly stamped OH OH). I used CS Perfect medium to stamp and  then alternately heat emboss with gold and then with detail white embossing powder. Finally I inked over with three shades of green Distress ink.  The numbers and letter were cut with some X-cut dies.

The Believe stamp was stamped with Black Archival and heat embossed with clear powder. I inked round the edge and mounted it on black card.

I assembled all the mats and then I wrapped some burlap round the mats before sticking the mats to the card blank. The final touch was to add a black embellishment. 

I called it Secret Santa because I thought the stamps hinted at Santa. 

Enjoy the rest of the week I hope all your Christmas shopping is going well.

Happy Crafting

Hugs

Jackie

Christmas Bling

Hi Bloggers

Here I am back today on a busy Saturday.We have already been out to the shops and got back. Most of the Christmas shopping is done now. My husband is doing lots of Christmas jobs and I have just found a little bit of time to myself.

This card started with the topper. I was lucky enough to win some Kanban toppers in a draw on Bev Lowe's blog - thank you. It was such a beautiful topper it inspired the rest of the card. I thought it would be good to enter the Crafty Musketeers Challenge 20 Use Bling and Delicious Doodles Non Traditional Christmas Challenge.

The finished card is 8" x 8". The background was created by stamping different sized snowflake stamps with CS Perfect Medium and heat embossing, one at a time, with silver glitter, clear and white embossing powder. 

I made the frame with a Spellbinder corner die cut four times in silver mirror card (which is really difficult to photograph). 

The final touch was to add a bow made with the My Craft Studio bow maker which I must say is very easy to use. I decorated the knot of the bow with snowflake made with two Spellbinders dies and i placed  a dazzler in the centre. 

As something a little different I thought I would share the chocolate vanilla marble cupcakes my daughter made earlier this week. We didn't get to try any as they were for a friend's birthday. We did get to lick the icing bowls (role reversal) which tasted delicious. 

Well that is all for today. Present wrapping is beckoning me as I 

type. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Happy Crafting.

Hugs Jackie

Ivy Trellis Birthday Card

Hi Bloggers

I am finding it hard to blog in December there are so many other things  that need doing there isn't so much time to craft. How are all your plans going? We actually know what we are doing for Christmas now so the shopping can start in earnest.

Today's card was the result of a play with some new dies they are all Sue Wilson dies.

I started with the card blank and I messed about with the dies until I was happy with the design it did take a while and quite a few false starts.

The panel dies are beautiful and I can think of quite a few uses for them. When I get my new  Grand Calibur I  want to try a similar design to this one as a square - you know how much I like squares.

I tried a much fancier die cut Happy Birthday in the centre of the tag and it just didn't work. It is very pretty I have saved it to use on another project.

So there you have it another birthday card for my stash. I keep needing male cards so I ought to make a few more of those. 

I would like to enter this for the Dream Valley Challenge 96 - True Blue.

It is Thursday evening so I want to wish you a happy weekend. Only one more day at work. I will be at a special service in Winchester Cathedral tomorrow for work it should be good if a little cold.

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

Christmas Robin

Hi Bloggers

Yesterday I went to the  Hobbycrafts show at the Excel Centre in London. At the same time Brick 2014 was going on  (a Lego convention) it was a strange mix. I will share some pictures from the Hobbycrafts show at the end of this post.

Today's card is a traditional card with a robin on it. Who doesn't like a robin at Christmas?



The main image came from an old Christmas card I save all my cards with robins on, I do like them a lot. I teamed the image with a black edging and some pretty paper. So quite an easy card really just what you need when you have a lot to make.

Now on to my pictures from the Hobbycrafts show. I met and had chats with Jo Austin and Pete Hughes. Of course I did some shopping, it would have been rude not too.

Jo Austin

Pete Hughes from Sizzix

Showing me the Pinecone die I'm getting it for Christmas (lucky me)

A World War I display all in white.

Hand knitted poppy wreaths. 

My stash the silver card is for wedding invites.

With Paddington at Paddington station.

I hope you all had a great weekend and got caught up on all the jobs that need to be done. I will be starting my Advent Journal tomorrow. I can't believe how quickly the time is going,

Happy crafting.

Hugs Jackie

Anniversary Hearts

Hi Bloggers 

How has your week been so far?  As usual at this time of year things are getting very busy, Today I have just been on a trip to Bursledon Windmill it is very interesting and well worth a visit and in the Spring they will start milling their own flour. 

I am sharing a quick little card today that was made with all the leftovers from the wedding card I made last week. So it will be just right for Pixie's Snippets Playground this time. I think silver and white is a classic combination for weddings and anniversarys. So I couldn't let all the bits and bobs go to waste.

I am sorry about the quality of the photos the light is really tricky at this time of year and of course the card doesn't have much contrast. Can you spot my slight slip with the background embossing.?

The hearts were made for the original card but when I laid out the mats and embellishments before I stuck them down these hearts just didn't look right. So I put them to one side and had another go. But they were too pretty not to use on another project,

The sentiment was cut from a scrap of silver paper. 

  

There you have it quite a simple card but a good one to have in my stash. I am starting to work on some wedding invitations  for a relative it will be a hefty project to get my teeth into.

We are off to see Michael McIntyre tomorrow  I can't wait. Enjoy the rest of the week. 

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

Advent Journal

Hi Bloggers

How is your week going? We were really  lucky  to get tickets to see Michael McIntyre later this week so we have to look forward to. It is a show to try out material so the venue is smaller than normal.

This post is something a little different for me, I have created a journal. I went a service at church that was led by Hopeweavers (a local organisation that leads quiet days and times of reflection often with a craft element) and we were given the chance to create an Advent Journal. The idea is to add our thoughts to the journal throughout Advent. There were no rules or restrictions  to what we could do. I decided that I would use it to try a few new craft techniques as well as my thoughts and feelings.

We were given a journal with a black cover. I didn't want to decorate the cover at the service as there was a particular technique that I wanted to try. I used the time there to number the pages.

So here are the starting materials some craft card and a journal with a black cover. I wanted to have a go at the faux leather technique. I found an online tutorial by Sheena Douglass that I followed. The only difference was that I used a decoupage glue to seal the sheet when it was finished.

I was really pleased with how it turned out and I thought I would have to leave it to dry for a long time but I was able to used the card the afternoon I made it. I used die cuts and ribbon to decorate the cover. The embossing folder I used was a 6" x 6" one which I had to extend the design to cover the whole sheet. 

This is the back the logo is the Hopeweavers logo. They have a website you can visit. 

So there you have it my journal for Advent. I am quite looking forward to filling it in. There will be a service in January where we can share our journals if we want to. 

Have a great week.

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

A Fair Trade.

Hi  Bloggers

I hope you are having a great weekend. Christmas prep is in full swing in our house. I have even started to wrap presents.

Someone at work made me an offer that I couldn't refuse, she offered to make me a Christmas cake if I made a Christmas card for her mum. I was very happy to accept  this offer here is what I created for her. She has already made the cake. That was speedy and we both get to do something we enjoy doing.

  I based this card on one I had made previously but without my Grand Calibur I had to think of a way round not being able to do A4 embossing.

I cut the while mat for the aperture as wide as would so through my Big Shot. I like the white on black look I achieved this with a die cut in white for the sentiment.

Around the the edge of the black mat I stamped a snowflake with Perfect Medium and alternately heat embossed with white and then with clear embossing powder.

The one stipulation was that the word MUM was on the card, I cut this with my new Tonic alphabet dies - they are good. I cut off the the fancy bits for a cleaner look and so it would fit in the space I had left for it .

For the insert I cut the Mosaic Poinsettia out of Funky Foam and I used it as a stamp. 

Finally I used the leftover bits from the alphabet dies to decorate the envelope.

I think I got a fair trade for a cake. Enjoy the rest of the weekend. We are off to Salisbury to collect a rabbit for my daughter.

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

White Wedding

Hi Bloggers

Here we are in the middle of the week, isn't the time going by quickly. Not long and it will be December and we all know what that means. I hope all your preparations are going well.

Today's card is a commission for a friend at work. She wanted and white card I persuaded her to have a touch of silver.

My friend was also keen on having the initials of the couple on the card. Tonic have just released some alphabet cards and I thought that they would be good for this commission (and in the future) so I treated myself. You can achieve three different looks with these dies which I thought made them good value.

I won't have my Grand Calibur for a while, my crafty friend helped me by allowing me to do some embossing on her machine. I used three different embossing folders two A4 and one smaller one. I haven't been successful making white on white cards before  that is why I  was keen to add the silver  for me it lifts the card just enough. I found this card tricky to photograph because of the lack of contrast.

Quite a simple card really. My big fear is that I have got the wrong initials.

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

Happy Crafting.

Hugs Jackie