Up, Up and Away Male Birthday Card

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How has your Bank Holiday been? We have had fun celebrating our daughter's birthday. First we went  to the Southsea Aquarium, then we went to see the new Turtle Movie (a childhood favourite of our daughter) and finishing with a meal. It was a very nice day she is on her way home now with her rabbits.

I have made a few male cards for my stash recently having found myself short a few days ago.

I have been reusing greetings cards again. The balloon card in the background was one of the get well cards my husband got when he broke his wrist. I kept seeing it on the side knowing that I wanted to make a card out of it. I used an Crafter's Companion cloud embossing folder to create the background. 

I used a Spellbinders die to create my balloon to match the ones on the reused cards. 

I decided to make a quick card with the Spellbinders die and the cloud embossing folder as well.  

I have a few male cards for my stash now. I won't be crafting for a while we are going away for a few days. 

Have a great week. 

Happy Crafting. 

Hugs Jackie

Sparkly Butterflies

Hi My Crafter Blog Friends

How is your weekend going? Some of us have an extra day to look forward to and others of us have a whole week of half term coming.  Yesterday we visited both sets of parents. Today our daughter and her fiancé are coming to stay so we can all celebrate her birthday tomorrow. It should be lots of fun it is always nice to see them.

I have been playing with my  Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens again I just can't resist getting them out to play with and that Sheena Douglass butterfly stamp is so gorgeous.

I used three different embossing folders to make this card. I used the free one from the magazine again as it is easy to cut an aperture in the card before it is embossed. Then I can use the die that I used for the aperture as the centre on a frame for the same aperture. The background embossing folder is an older one by Creative Expressions. The fussy ribbon was in my stash it looks a bit like a skirt. 

For the background to the aperture I used a Floral embossing folder by Crafter's Companion I used white Centura Pearl card and I coloured the raised areas with my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens. The butterflies were stamped with black archival ink onto water colour card and coloured with the Sparkle pens and some water and a brush. The butterflies were cut out by hand. 

The sentiment was cut from a page of sentiments and mounted onto purple card. 

Here are our furry house guests they are quite sweet and I think they enjoy being here. 

I would like to enter Challenge 55 at the Butterfly Challenge blog. 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Happy Crafting.

Hugs Jackie

Alphabet Challenge the letter G for Girlie

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

The weekend is nearly here and for me the start of the half term holiday. We have lots of plans which I will share over the next few day. In the meantime our daughter's rabbits have settled in well for their short break.

The new challenge starts today on the Alphabet Challenge Blog the letter is G and the theme is Girlie.

I used two different embossing folders to create the background the Bed of Roses Embossing folder from Creative Expressions and a free embossing older from Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine. The mirror card I used for the layers matched the foiling around the image. 

The image came from a kit I bought a long time ago. 

My crafty friend spotted this card and like it a lot I will be putting it by for her birthday. 

I would like to enter the Embossing Challenge on the Cuttlebug Mania Challenge blog. 

Have a great weekend. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Sail Away Male Birthday Card

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How has your week been so far? We  have reached what some people refer to as Hump Day half way through the working week. When this post is published I will be on my way on a school trip heading towards Arlesford in Hampshire where the children will learn about the countryside. I hope we don't get any rain today.

When my husband asked for a birthday card for a male colleague earlier this week I realised just how few male cards I have in my stash. So I thought I'd better start making some.

I have been given a large collection of used cards on the off chance I might be able to make a card of my own from some of them. This card took two. The first card I cut down for the background. I used lots of layers to make the card more interesting. 

This is one of the wooden stamps from my collection. 

This boat came from another card. I have used this image before when my Father-in-law was 90 he got eight cards with this boat on them. Interestingly the pop-up box card I made for him is still on display. 

I made this card to go in my box of cards so next time my husband asks for a card there will be more for him to choose from. 

I would like to enter Challenge 121 at Cardz 4 Guyz. 

Happy Crafting.

Hugs Jackie

Butterfly with Love Always

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope that you had a wonderful weekend. We did get the rabbit room ready for our daughter's rabbits who will arrive on Wednesday. They are very cute and they will feature on the Save the Date cards we are going to make for the forthcoming wedding. Also my husband started to build my crafty storage that was delivered on Thursday. So it won't be too long before I start the mega sort out of my crafty bits and pieces.

I made this card with the left overs from the butterfly card I made last week. I also wanted the play with the new Crafter's Companion Indulgence die set my friend gave me for my birthday.

I used various shades of Centura Pearl card to make the layers.

The Sheena Douglass butterfly was stamped onto watercolour card with black archival ink and then coloured with my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens and a brush and some water. 

Isn't this a pretty die I was thrilled when I received this for my birthday. This was the first chance I had to play. The die comes with two different edges for different looks. I cut and embossed some white Centura Pearl card with the die and I backed it with one of the shades of card from the layers to highlight the detail. 

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

I would like to enter Pixie's Snippets Playground Week 230

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Fantasy Stampers - All About the Girl

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

The weekend is here. There is so much to do. Our daughter's rabbits are coming to stay next week and we need to clear the room they will be staying in.  There is a lot of stuff in the room it is going to be a bit of a job to sort it all out and to find places for all the things to go.

The new challenge starts today on the Fantasy Stampers Challenge blog and the theme is All About the Girl.

The stamp I used was a large one it is Gorjuss - the Runaway by Docrafts. 

I stamped the image with black archival onto watercolour card. Then I coloured it with my Spectrum Noir sparkle pens. I keep choosing images that are good to use with the pens as I love using them so much. The sentiment came from the Birthday Blooms stamp set.  I made the frame with some of Sue Wilson's Noble dies. 

I cut one of the Sue Wilson border dies from the French collection and place it under the image. The backing paper was from my stash. 

If you check back on the Fantasy Stampers Challenge blog tomorrow the winners of the last challenge will be announced. 

I hope that  you have a wonderful weekend. 

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

Butterfly Lullaby

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How has your week been? It is quite a relief to be nearly at the weekend. I had a delivery of some craft storage today, we ordered it at Ally Pally,  we have waited quite a while for it. The hall is full, it all needs making up some time and then I will have to sort out my crafty mess. I wonder what I am going to find when I do.

While I was waiting for the storage to be delivered I had a play with some butterfly stamps and my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens.

The stamp was designed by Sheena Douglass and came free with Issue 9 of Crafter's Inspiration by Crafter's Companion. 

The butterflies were stamped onto watercolour card with Archival ink and then they were coloured with my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens. I blended the colours with some water and a fine paint brush. I cut the butterflies out by hand but I didn't cut the antennae. I decided where to place the butterflies on the background and then I stamped the butterflies on the backing paper and stuck the coloured butterflies over them. 

The sentiment came from the Festive Butterflies stamp set by Crafter's Companion. I am not sure what it means but it seemed to go with the card. 

I enjoyed making this card the butterflies really lent themselves to being coloured with the sparkle pens. 

I would like to enter Challenge 19 at Jade's Sparkling Butterflies, Challenge 15 at The Crafty Addicts, TTCRD Challenge 17th to 23rd May, Challenge 119 at Crafting from the Heart and Challenge 312 at Craft Your Passion. 

I hope you have a great evening. The weekend it nearly here!

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

More Christmas in May

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How is your week going? The weather has been a bit hit and miss round here. Yesterday we had a treat, there was an offer on Travel Zoo to see Guys and Dolls at the Mayflower theatre at a bargain price. It was a fantastic show we thoroughly enjoyed it. We are so lucky to live so close to such a good theatre.

On Monday I had a crafty session and I wasn't sure what to make. I was going through my Christmas stash ( yes it is separate to the rest of my stash) and I came across some laser cut card blanks that I hadn't successfully used before.

The ivy leaves are cut into the card blank they are just so pretty. I put some green card behind to make the leaves look green. The finished card measure 8" x 8". 

The image and the sentiment came from the Every Blessing stamp set by Stampin Up. They were stamped with black archival ink. I used a mask to ink over the image. 

I made a smaller card  using the same idea. I used a pen to outline the square I inked to give it some definition. The template I used for the inking it one I made last year to fit this size of card. I am so pleased I kept it. I think I will be making some more of these. These cards are just 6" x 6" and they are flat which makes them ideal for posting. 

It was a good session. Altogether I made four Christmas card (two of each design) and two other cards I needed to make. 

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Thank you Cards

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you had a good weekend. We had a quiet one catching up on jobs that needed doing. On Sunday we continued our hunt for local places to walk and we found a common that is about 5 mins drive from our house it has a Bronze Age burial mound and the remains of a Roman road. We are trying to be more active and with the nicer weather it is nice to get out for some fresh air.

I needed to make some thank you cards for all the kind people that gave me birthday presents. I also didn't have much time so I found a Hunkydory paper kit in my stash, I think it came free with a magazine,  that is what I used.

This is just one of the cards. They all had the same basic design the images and papers were different but all girly. I wanted them to be flat for posting. The pretty papers came from my stash. The thank you die came from a Spellbinders set. 

I wanted to share the tag one of my very crafty friends made for me with her Groovi plates. I like it so much I have used it as the header on my Crafty Facebook page. 

Here are all the cards together I really did make ten. You will be pleased to know that when the post goes live these cards will be either  handed out or in the post. That is not too bad for just a week after my birthday. 

I hope you have a great week and that the weather is kind. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Furry Friends Birthday Card

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends,

Happy Saturday! I wonder what you have planned? I am hoping to get some crafting done I am getting behind with some of my makes. The garden is also beaconing with jobs that need doing so hopefully some of that will be done too.

About a week ago I made a bit of a mistake and I made a card for the Alphabet Challenge with the theme of Furry Friends. It was only after I had the made the card did I realise that it was the theme for Team A and I am on Team B. I thought I would share my card anyway.

I used a kit from Docrafts that they stopped making some time ago but the little animals are so cute and they all look like friends in the pyramage. 

All the elements I used in the card came from the kit. 

The owl is very cute. 

Well I have another card in my stash. 

Have a wonderful weekend. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Christmas in May

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How has your week been so far? It seems an age since my birthday but it was only been a few days ago. I am struggling to fit in any crafting at the moment. There seems to be so much else to do.

At the start of the year I promised myself that I would make Christmas cards all year round to try and avoid the rush at the end of the year. So far I have made eight cards I need about a hundred so I still have a way to go. Last week I found I had a little bit of time so I made another Christmas card.

You know me, I love robins. Last year I saved some of our Christmas cards that had robins on.

I used the image from one of the saved cards to make this card. There is a little bit of glitter on the image. I embossed some white card to go behind the image and I inked it with blue ink to tone in with the background. The ribbon was in my stash. 

This is a lovely robin. 

I think this is Christmas card number seven. I do have so many more to make. 

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Father's Day Card Number 3

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I had a lovely birthday on Monday I was thoroughly spoilt. We saw a film and had a nice meal. It was a good day.

This is the last Father's Day card for me to make this year. This one is for my husband and I wasn't quite sure what image to use on his card. Then I remembered the Cruise ship die I had bought some time ago.

There are some of  Sue Wilson's dies behind the main image to add a bit of interest.  

Inks and masks were used to create the scene behind the cruise ship which is a Signature die from Joanna Sheen. 

I do love this Father's Day card die. I have used it on all three of my cards this year. I will probably use it again next year it is just ideal. 

The reason for using the cruise ship on  this card is that we have been on some some lovely Cruises and we want to go again sometime. Probably after the wedding. 

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Tattered Lace - Craft a Card Collection

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How was your weekend? We had lots of fun with our daughter and her fiancé on Saturday. Both my daughter and I now have hats for the wedding in July. We also saw the new Captain America film. It really helped that it was such a lovely sunny day to make it special.

On Saturday the new Craft a Card Collection was launched by Tattered Lace dies on Create and Craft TV. These dies are the ones that I was sent by Craft Channel Productions Ltd. The chances are that these are the last dies I will work with for them as I haven't reapplied to be on their Design Team. It was a lovely set to use.

This is the whole collection of cards that I sent off. 

For this one I made the background of the card with my Brushos. 

This is quite a small card I made it with some bits left over from another project. 

Here is the card on TV as you can see they displayed it differently to me but that doesn't matter. 

I had fun making this card I found I could use the large card die to make mats any size I wanted. 

Stephanie Weightman was very keen on this card she said some very nice things about it and she even talked about how it was made in the second show. 

I used the Pindot flowers on the tag. 

When I saw the die set the first thing I thought of was an easel card and this is the one I made. I decorated it with the flowers. 

Here is is on TV it was right in the middle of the display under the die sets. 

I loved making this card not just because the flowers are very pretty but I worked out how to use my vertical sentiment die set. 

You can just see this card on the counter next to the dies. 

Another small card. I could see this in a pile in the studio but it didn't get shown. 

This is the picture of the same card that was shared on the Tattered Lace Facebook page. 

Tomorrow is my birthday. I only work in the morning my husband has taken the afternoon off so we are going to have a little  treat. I don't think the weather will be as good as at the weekend. 

Have a great week. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie