Moving Along with the Times (MAWTT) - Add a Number

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

Good morning. I hope you are well and that the weather is being kind, We are having a short break in London so this the first of some scheduled posts from me. I will catch up with everyone when we get back. If all has gone well we should have been to a performance of Much Ado About Nothing at the Globe theatre and today we are booked to see the Pink Floyd exhibition at the V&A museum.

Today also sees the start of a new challenge on the Moving Along with the Times Challenge blog (MAWTT) the theme is Add a Number. This is the card I made for my mother-in-law's 90th birthday she adores poppies.

The background paper was in my stash. All the mats and layers were cut with the Double Pierced Squares from Creative Expressions. 

This is another Creative Expressions die. 

This poppy stamp is by Woodware. I masked off the front poppies so I could stamp the poppy behind. They were coloured with my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens. 

I have had these number dies for a while. Not long after I got them I lost the "th" die so I cut "with" now and cut it down. 

My mother-in-law did love this card she had it back in June for her actual birthday.

I would like to enter challenge 102 at Aloha Friday Challenges.

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

Take care. 

Hugs Jackie

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Up, Up and Away

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

Happy Bank Holiday.  I hope you are having a fine bank holiday weekend for those of you who get a Bank Holiday. Yesterday we celebrated my Mother-in-Law's 90th birthday. We had a lovely time altogether and the weather played its part and was just right. Today I am hoping to go back to the Hampshire Open Studios at Abshot Barn to collect the Batik we bought last weekend  I am quite excited about getting it home.

I was making a card for a challenge blog and I created this background in the end I decided it wasn't right for the image I was using. It was too good to waste so I used it to make this card. I made the background by masking off areas so I could control where the Pixie Powders and Brushos went. The clouds I cut with a die and laid them over the paper. I spritzed a couple of times with the clouds in place and once more with them removed. I didn't want a definite line on the clouds. 

The balloon was cut with a Spellbinders die set called Up and Away Hot Air Balloon. 

This is a Creative Expressions die. 

When we set off home yesterday I said "this is a hot air balloon day" it was  lovely claim sunny day. Can you imagine my delight when we actually saw one on the journey. As I was in the car the picture isn't that good. 

This is another card for my stash for those times  when my husband comes home saying he needs a card for someone at work by tomorrow. It has happened quite often. 

Enjoy the rest of the day.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Christmas Rose Christmas Card

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

How has your week been? For some of us a long weekend is ahead of us. I hope you have something nice planned. We will be celebrating my mother-in-law's 90th Birthday, which was in June, this was the earliest we could get everyone together. People are so busy these days.

Yes it is another Christmas card from me. I was making a card for one of the Design Teams I am on and I liked the way the flowers and foliage worked together this inspired me to make this card.

This is a DL card. I found the script backing paper in one of my tidying sessions. 

This is the Season's Greetings die from Creative Expressions. In fact all the dies I used are ones designed by Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions. 

Last year I bought the Christmas Rose die set and this is the first time I had used it. I also used the twigs from the Pine Bough die set and the Holly Sprays die set. The holly berries were created with Berry Red Pearl PVA glue. 

I was very pleased with how this card turned out. I have another idea that I might just try out soon. 

Enjoy the rest of the day. 

I would like to enter the August Rudolph Days Challenge , Challenge 79 at the Dies R Us Challenge blog , Challenge 43 at A Snowflakes Promise Challenge Blog and the Summer Link-up at the Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge blog.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Quick Christmas Card

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

How is your week going?  I have had a very busy two days. I am hoping today will be a little calmer. There are so many thing I want to do.

I am still making Christmas cards. This year I don't really have any idea how many I will need. This card was really quick to make.

Last year I got the member's gift from Create and Craft it was a stack of A6 Christmas images called Cosy Christmas. I did use some of the sheets last Christmas but I have struggled with ideas for some of the sheets. The background is one of the sheets. 

I added an image that I got in a little packet of toppers from the Range. This is the last one. I am trying to use things up. 

Earlier in the year our local craft shop had an enormous sale. I picked up this IndigoBlu Christmas stamp for just 50p. Yesterday I used it for the first time. It is a rubber stamp and it worked well with my Tim Holtz stamping platform. You can flip the top so it can handle clear or rubber stamps. I did quite a bit of stamping yesterday while it was out. The results are very good. Some stamps I had struggled with before stamped first time.  It is also very good for batch stamping once you have everything set up. 

This is another card for the Christmas pile which is getting bigger. 

Enjoy the rest of the week 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Stained Glass Butterfly - Happy Birthday

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you had a great weekend and are ready for the week ahead. We had a lovely day on Saturday in the afternoon we went to Hampshire Open Studios at Great Abshot Barn in Titchfield Common. There are several artists exhibiting including a close friend, we actually bought one of her batiks.  I will show you when we get it she is  a very talented artist.  The exhibition is well worth a visit the location is lovely there is tea and cake available and you can look round the beautiful garden as well. From there we went to Gun Wharf Quays in Portsmouth  and saw the brilliant film Baby Driver which we followed with a nice meal in Cafe Rouge. On Sunday we took my parents out for a meal.

Before we went on holiday (which seems a long time ago now) I made up four of the Butterfly Stained Glass die from Creative Expressions. I decided to use the third one to make a square card.

This is what I came up with.. I used patterned paper and the Bed of Roses Embossing folder  also from Creative Expressions.  

Behind the die is a Pixie powder background that was covered with a double sided sticky sheet. I cut the die in black and stuck to the sticky sheet. Then I cut the die in many colours to piece into the die (it is a great way to use up scraps of paper and card). The remaining sticky was covered with Micro Beads. Finally it was cut out with one of my Double Pierced rectangle dies. 

As there wasn't much room for a sentiment I used my Crafter's Companion die.

I have one more die cut to use I am sure I will use that soon. At the moment I am on a mission to tidy my craft stash I am just doing it a bit at a time. It is amazing all the things I am finding that I forgot that I had. 

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Pollyanna Pickering Panda - Christmas Card

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How has your week been? I can't believe how quickly the time goes by there is always so much to do.  Lots of people have warned me it would be like this.

I ordered the Snow & Ice Volume II bundle of papers and toppers from the Creative World of Crafts. I just couldn't resist the gorgeous images by Pollyanna Pickering and the price was good too. Everything arrived yesterday. I just had to have a play.

The backing paper came from the Snow & Ice - Volume II Paper Popper Pad. I used the Sue Wilson Snowflake border die to cut the two borders. 

This gorgeous image came from the Snow & Ice - Volume II Decoupage Popper Pad. 

The sentiment was cut with another Sue Wilson die. It was cut twice once in red and once in black. I do find having a shadow helps the sentiment to show up against the background. 

This is another Christmas card for my stash. I had a count yesterday I have made 40 so far this year. Having left work I don't think I will need as many as last year. Every little helps. 

Have a wonderful weekend. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Nautical Step Panel Card

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How is your week going? So far the weather has been quite kind this week and we have seen a bit of the sun. I have been ordering food for a celebration of my mother-in-law's 90th birthday. We are having a get together at the end of August.

I think I have said that I am struggling with my card making at the moment. I wanted to make something for my father-in-law he does love getting my cards. I had no inspiration at all and then I was flicking through issue 168 of Quick Cards Made Easy magazine and I spotted How to make Step Panel cards. I knew this would be ideal. He loves shaped cards and this one I have never made before.

The instructions in the magazine were very easy to follow. I used my scoring board to make all the folds. This card will fold flat to go in an envelope. 

The topper came from an old card. The mats and layers were cut with circle dies. 

I decided to make an extra panel for the Happy Birthday it helps it to be seen more clearly. 

I think he will like this card. I enjoyed making a different type of card. I think I need to challenge myself a bit more. 

I would like to enter challenge 176 at the Cards 4 Guyz Challenge blog , challenge 342 at Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge blog , challenge 50 at the A Bit More Time to Craft Challenge blog , challenge 348 at the Crafty Creations Challenge blog and challenge 8 at Do-A1 (1) Kreatives.

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

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LOTV Angelic Christmas Card

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How was your weekend? We got lots of things sorted. The bunny room is nearly ready and the garden is looking a lot tidier. My husband keeps saying that I have lots of time now to get things sorted out. I wonder if it is going to work out like that.

I have found it a bit hard to get back into card making. I have joined a design team as a guest for September so that has helped a bit. Today I made a Christmas card.

I was going through my Christmas stash and this little angel was the last one on an LOTV (Lily of the Valley)  set of images. I found the paper there to just enough for this card. The snowflake die came free with a magazine last year. 

I am not sure why I didn't use her when I used the other images. She is very pretty. The image and mats and layer were cut with my Double Pierced Square dies from Creative Expressions. 

I cut the Sue Wilson Merry Christmas die from white sparkly paper. I love how it shows up against the background. 

This card didn't take long to put together. I have decided that when I am not sure what to do I will make Christmas cards. I always need lots of those but not as many as last year. Have a great week. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Cottage Garden Thank You Cards

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

The weekend is here. I hope you have something nice planned. Now we are back from holiday we need to get on with sorting things out. The spare room has to be ready for the rabbits in September. We are looking after our daughter's rabbits while she and her new husband go on Honeymoon. By putting the Honeymoon off for a few weeks they saved quite a lot of money. One thing we will be doing is taking the wedding dress to be cleaned I didn't realise that is would be so expensive.

I wasn't sure whether to share these cards or not they are a bit simple. Since the wedding I have been struggling with my card making I just don't seem to be very focused. I needed some cards to say thank you for some of my leaving presents.

I used two dies one was the Cottage Garden die that came with issue 149 of Papercraft Essentials Magazine. The other was a thank you die that I got free with a magazine sometime ago I can't now remember which one - sorry.  

The Cottage Garden die is very pretty and it gives a lovely lacy effect. The thank you die seems to match it quite well. Both dies cut well. 

I made the card in two colours ways. It would be easy to adapt to other colours, I did decorate the flap on the envelope with a die cut. 

I will post these cards to the recipients next week. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Stained Glass Butterfly and Pixie Powders

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How is your week going? It has been rather wet here though I have managed to get the holiday washing done. We did have a lovely time away and I really enjoyed the book I took away with me (Paper Hearts and Summer Kisses by Carole Matthews) it is a very good read.

Before we went away I had a play with the Butterfly die from the Stained Glass collection by Creative Expressions. When we returned from holiday I made a card with the results of my experiments.

When you use Pixie Powders and Brushos there is always a lot of ink left over. As many of you do, I hate waste so the background piece is made with soaking up the link with a piece of water colour card. It has a lovely sheen that doesn't show in the photo. 

For the background for the die I used Pixie Powders and Brushos to get the colour. Then the piece was covered with some double sided sticky sheet. The black die cut was placed on top. Then I cut the die in various colours and placed pieces into the die cut. It is a great way to use up scraps of paper. Once I was happy the remaining sticky was covered with Micro Beads. The frame was cut with the Double Pierced Rectangle dies by Creative Expressions. 

This die came free with a magazine, I can't remember which,  it has been very useful. 

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

I would like to enter challenge 84 at the Butterfly Challenge blog , Pixie's Snippets Playground Weeks 293 and 294 and the Anything Goes with Dies challenge at the Happy Little Stamper Challenge blog.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Emerald City Crafts Challenge Blog - Challenge 2

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

Well the weekend is nearly here. We return from holiday tomorrow. Then I will be able to catch up with everyone. Thank you to everyone who has stopped by during my absence.

The second challenge on the Emerald City Crafts Challenge Blog starts today and the theme is always Anything Goes.

The papers and lace were from my stash. 

This image is from the Nostalgia Ephemera Collection  available from the Linda Simpson Designs Website. 

When we were first thinking about the wedding and I knew our daughter wanted me to make the flowers I had a dabble with making lace flowers. We went with paper flowers in the end but these are still very pretty and too good to waste. The leaves were also wedding buys that were never used. 

Enjoy the weekend. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Moving Along with the Times (MAWTT) Challenge blog - theme Things that Fly

Hi My Crafty Blogs Friends

I hope your week is going well. We are still on holiday. I did look at the weather forecast before we went it promises to be very hot and sunny. Just right for a bit of relaxing.

The new challenge starts today on the Moving Along with the Times (MAWTT) Challenge blogs and the theme is Things that Fly. So not just birds but I have chosen to use a robin.

I just adore robins on Christmas cards. The background was just created with some papers from my stash. 

I found a robin decoupage sheet in my Christmas stash. It is ages since I have done any decoupage. I cut the mats with some Tonic Circle dies I have had them for ages they are very useful. 

The sentiment was cut with one of the Sue Wilson Festive dies I can't remember from which release. 

Before we went on holiday I treated myself to this book with the intention of reading it while we are away. I don't actually read much so this is a bit of a challenge for me. I will let you know how I get on when we get back. 

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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