Christmas Robin

Hi Bloggers

How has your week been so far. I managed to have a crafting disaster - my Grand Calibur broke, the handle snapped off. It is all packed up waiting to be dropped off so it can go back to Ideal World. I haven't had it for very long. It is back to the faithful old Big Shot  no big embossing from me for a while.  I think all my dies will work in the Big Shot. Thankfully I have finished my Christmas cards - yes I completed the last 20. Though a  soon as I thought I had finished my daughter asked me to make one for her boyfriend and so it goes on.

Today's card is a simple Christmas card. When I showed someone at work the Christmas stamps Sam Poole had released  back in September she said "I like robins hint, hint". So I made her this one.

As you can see it is quite a simple card. I already had the Mistletoe background and a robin stamped and heat set, I just had to colour him with Promarkers. 

He is nice to colour and quite easy to cut out.

The snowflakes were cut with a die that came free with a magazine. A bit of embossing with a Sue Wilson A4 embossing folder, some black paper and you have a Christmas card.

I hope my friend likes it. I will let you know how I get on with my Grand Calibur I am pleased I can drop it off somewhere and not have to wait in for it to be collected. Enjoy the rest of the week whatever you are doing.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Christmas Wishes

Hi Bloggers

Here we are at the start of anther week. I am lucky as I am on Half Term holiday so I have some extra time to craft. My hope is to finish my Christmas cards. I think I need another 20 but they won't be as detailed as the one I am sharing today.

I made this card for someone very special and I know they will appreciate the effort I have put into it. There is no stamping here everything is made with dies or embossing folders.

I used Sue Wilson Festive dies and one of her Festive embossing folders.

I layered up the Poinsettia dies to achieve this look and added a flat back pearl to the centre.

I cut the aperture and made the gold frame with dies from Sue Wilson's French collection. The sentiment is made with a Signature die made by Joanna Sheen.

I'd better get on with my Christmas cards they aren't going to make themselves. I hope you all have a good week. 

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

A Quintet of Pink Butterflies.

Hi Bloggers

Yesterday I finished 16 Christmas cards so as an antidote to all things green and red I thought I would have a go at the current challenge on the Butterfly Challenge blog. This time it is emboss your butterfly and I have had a butterfly embossing folder for a while that I was itching to use.

The dies I used were Tonic dies and were all cut out of white card , embossed and inked with Distress ink to get the colour I wanted. The sentiment is a Clarity stamp cut with a Spellbinder die.

Here is the detail of the embossed background I used a card stock with a white core so it could be sanded back and inked. 

This is the start of half term week for me so I am hoping to finish my Christmas cards, I need another 20 which should be achievable. The film we saw on Monday as a preview was Nightcrawler it seems to be being advertised quite heavily now. It was interesting but I'm not sure we would have chosen to see it at the cinema.  

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Happy crafting

Hugs Jackie

Squirrel goes Nuts

Hi Bloggers

I hope you are having a good week so far and that the rest of the week is kind to you. My week hasn't been too busy so I have had a bit more time to craft.

I have had the Squirrel stamp (by Sam Poole) for some time now and I had been waiting for a chance to use it. So when I found an Autumn themed challenge my opportunity came along.

  

To make the background I inked through a leaf border mask with Distress inks and then I stamped a newsprint stamp all over. Once this had dried I used the Birch tree mask to emboss the background when I had done this I inked through the mask. I had cut the mat so that there was a border around the mask which when inked looks like an extra mat. 

The Squirrel was stamped in Black archival and heat embossed with CS Clear detail embossing powder and then coloured with Promarkers. The leaves were made with punches that emboss and they were inked with Distress ink. The tree was cut with a Memory Box die. 

The sentiment comes with the Squirrel it was cut out with a spellbinder die that was inked through once it had been embossed. I had some leaves left over from the bottom of the card so I put here.

Thank you for visiting.

Happy Crafting

Jackie

The Holly bears a Berry

Hi Bloggers

I hope you had a great weekend and that the new week is being kind to you. My husband and I are doing something a bit odd this evening. We are going to the cinema and we have no idea what we are going to see. It was an offer from the cinema and it is a preview the film will be on general release soon. When I do my next blog post I'll let you know what we got to see.

Today's card is one I made for our Vicar. She is a bit crafty herself, in fact she used to make cards but she no longer has time. So I think she will appreciate this card.

I had the tune of The holly and Ivy going through my head when I was making this card and tag. 

I used two different embossing folders. The holly was one of the Sue Wilson festive dies. I added the berries with CS Berry Red Pearl PVA. 

The cross is a Spellbinder's die that I cut twice once in black and once in gold. This creates a shadow when the gold is mounted on the black. I didn't add a sentiment as I thought the card was fine without one. If I remade this design I would make the central embossed mat a different colour probably a cream tone.

Of course I had to make  a matching tag. I wonder if she would like some chocolate.

Enjoy the rest of the week, 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Christmas Baubles

Hi Bloggers

It is a grey, wet Saturday here and we don't really have any plans for the weekend which is unusual for us. So it will be nice to catch up on a few jobs round the house.

This card and tag came about because I was making wedding invitation samples, in white and blue, to show to our niece as she has asked me to make her invites. So on my table there was lots of blue and white card and I had a new bauble die that came free with a magazine that I wanted to try.

I made the background by inking some white card with Stormy Sky Distress ink and then stamping over  it with a star stamp using Perfect Medium. After that I heat embossed the stars with a silver embossing powder. The stamp is by Sam Poole and gives a lovely random starry effect.

The baubles I cut and embossed in white card and I made a blue backing from some of the off cuts from the invites I had been making. To the centre of each bauble I added and CS 5mm flat back pearl.  The pine branches were cut with a Sue Wilson die.

I haven't really been much into making tags. But because there were so many scraps left around on my table it seemed silly not to use them. Also if I give this card to someone who I usually give a present to I will have a matching tag to use. Maybe I should start making wrapping paper as well.

I hope you have a great weekend whatever you are doing. Thank you for stopping by for a visit.

Happy crafting

Hugs Jackie

Dasher the Deer in a Forest

Hi Bloggers

I am sitting here in the lounge with the laptop on my lap on this cold dreary day. Today's card is a remake of one I made when I was on Sam Poole's Design team.

I started with the background and I inked some sky onto some pearlised card. Then I stamped some of the Christmas tree stamps onto the sky. I stamped some trees onto card and heat embossed them.

The snow was made by cutting some pearlised paper to fit and then tearing it to make the layers.

The branches were cut with a Sue Wilson die. 

The deer is called Dasher and he is one of Sam Poole's designs and sold by Creative Expressions. The Merry Christmas is another of her stamps I just made it into a sign. The snow detail was added with CS dries white PVA and this was covered by CS Diamond Sprinkles.

I will just show you the original card.

This is fine but I think I have improved the design it did help having a die to cut out the branches. Dasher is cute though, I do like using this stamp.

 I have added a link to my Pinterest gallery if you are interested. I hope the rest of the week is kind to you.

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

Butterfly Tag

Hi Bloggers

Just a quick post from me today. When I posted my butterfly cards Jenny L mentioned a butterfly challenge blog. So I checked it out and the current challenge is to make a tag. So that is what I did I made a tag and I will be entering it for the challenge.

I don't make many tags. I liked the butterflies that I had die cut and inked for one of my butterfly cards so I repeated what I had done here. I inked the top mat as well because it was the only way to get the colour that I wanted.  The leaves were made with  a Tonic die and the butterflies were made with a die from a Sizzix stamp and die set. Tag shape and mats were cut with a Sizzix die set. I might make something like this but on the other side of a window.

Thanks for looking.

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

Christmas in a Box

Hi Bloggers

Hasn't the week flown by I just don't know where the time goes. I can't believe that this time last week we were at the Excel queuing up to see Brent Spiner (Commander Data) at Destination Star Trek 3. As I  promised I will put a few pictures at the end of this post for those Trekkies out there - you know who you are. :)

Today's project is a card and matching box. They were both shown on Create and Craft when Sam  Poole did her last shows in August. The box was filled with toffees, this went down a treat with the crew in the studio. Needless to say the box came back empty but I can fill it again and give it to someone as a gift.

First  I created two  2 A4 background sheets by inking two white sheets of stamping card with red and green Distress inks. When the sheets had dried I stamped a poinsettia stamp with perfect medium and then I heat embossed with CS White Detail embossing power. I repeated this with a gold embossing powder. 

I made the card first I matted and layered the background onto a 8" x 8" black card blank and I added CS Antique Gold PVA glue dots around the edge.

The poinsettias were made with a Sizzix Bigz die Tattered Poinsettias by Tim Holtz. Once they were cut I inked and shaped them. To the centres of the poinsettias I added CS Antique gold PVA. 

I added some silky crush ribbon and an antique button and I made a tag with some dies and some left over background paper.

The box is a straight forward and the largest I could make from two A4 sheets. I scored the box with my Hougie board and I cut the aperture with a die. The acetate, that I placed in the aperture, is heat resistant  I used perfect medium and heat embossed it with white and then gold  embossing powder. I did make a matching tag, I stuck to the box for posting so it didn't get lost. The box looked lovely filled with red and gold wrapped toffees which weren't too expensive but they looked much more impressive in the box.

Now for Destination Star Trek 3 

This was the event logo you could see it everywhere.

We saw Colm Meany first he was a replacement for Jonathan Frakes who couldn't attend.

We had a break and then we saw Brent Spiner. The guests mostly do question and answer sessions he was very funny to listen to.

This is Patrick Stewart and his son Daniel (who was in one episode of Next Generation playing his son). I got better pictures of them as they stood still longer.

We did see lots of other people as we were walking around. Lots of people attend in costume and it is fun to see them. We are hoping to go again when it comes back to London.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

Butterflies, Butterflies and more Butterflies.

Hi Bloggers

I just want to say thank you for the response to my last post it was amazing and welcome to my new followers.  Today's cards came about because someone at work wanted a card with a butterfly on, like one I had made for a leaving card, as a birthday card for her daughter. I must admit I had been putting this off for a while but all the other cards I had to make were done so I had now further excuse not to have a go.

This is the butterfly, when I made the original card I made three.  The butterfly was made with a Sweet Poppy stencil inked through with distress ink covered with Translucent paste that was then covered with a fine clear glitter. If I am doing a technique like this I often make more than one and save them for later projects.

This is the first card I made.The background was made by stamping two sizes of butterfly stamp with Perfect Medium on to some white stamping card. This was then heat embossed with CS Clear Detail Embossing Powder and  inked with three shades of Distress Ink. 

The butterfly image was mounted onto purple card and a layer of

 silver which was pierced around the edge.

This is the second card and it is quite simple one.The background was embossed with the Sue Wilson A4 embossing folder Art Deco Fanfare. The Happy Birthday was from a Memory Box die that I cut up a bit as it wouldn't fit as a whole. I added a couple of die cut butterflies at the bottom of the card. I will take both of the cards to work and the lady will get to choose and I will have the other one in my stash. I wonder which one she will go for.

As a bit of fun I made this  little card for my stash  from leftovers from the cards I had been working on. I often try things out that don't necessarily work on the main card, like the inked butterflies, but they are too pretty not to have been used.   

Thank you for looking at my blog.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Owls at Christmas

Hi Bloggers

I have just finished a Christmas card commission and I'm rather pleased with myself. The girl who comes to the house to give me  Sports Massages (I have trouble neck and shoulders) saw a card I had made featuring two owls and she asked me to make her six for Christmas.

This is the card she saw it was actually one of the pieces I 

submitted when I was accepted onto Sam Poole's Design team. She wanted six Christmas cards with hardly any changes. The original card was 8" x 8".

This is what I came up with I did make some changes to make it a bit more Christmassy and they are just a little bit smaller.  The background embossing  is from a Sue Wilson A4 embossing folder. 

Aren't the owls cute they are stamps from Sam Poole's woodland creatures series I coloured them with Promarkers.

The holly and branches were cut with some of the new release Sue Wilson Christmas dies. I made the berries with CS Pearl PVA glue.

Here they are together on the shelf, I am going to put the first one away so she can't compare. I hope she likes them if she doesn't I will have 6 cards I can use myself.

Enjoy the weekend. If you read my previous post you will know we are off to Destination Star Trek tomorrow. There is a group of about 8 of us going. It should be fun. I will post some pictures when we get back

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

With Sympathy

Hi Bloggers

I hope you are having a good week, not long now and it will be the weekend. I wonder if you have any crafty plans?  This weekend we are going to Destination Star Trek at the Excel in London so I probably won't get much crafting done. It should be fun though we really enjoyed it when we went two years ago.

On to today's card, sympathy cards are never easy to make. This was for a family at church that have just lost their grandfather. They are a close family and this loss has hit them hard.

I wanted to keep the colour pallet simple and I didn't want to use black so I chose a beautiful teal colour card instead. I used a Sue Wilson A4  embossing folder on the background.

This shows the detail of the central Spellbinder die.

This shows the corner detail.

The I stamped the  insert with Clarity Stamps.

I will be posting this tomorrow I just want them to know that we are thinking of them at this time.

Enjoy the rest of the week and the weekend.

If I feel brave I might post some pictures from the Star Trek convention.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie