Some of my favourite makes from 2021

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

I hope that you all had a good Christmas. We did get to stay with our Daughter and Son-in-law. We had a lovely meal together and plenty of walks with the dog. I am sharing our special family news: in June we will become Grandparents. I still can't quite believe it. As a family we feel very blessed. There is still a long way to go but the signs are looking good. 

My back has continued to be a problem. I have taken to use the laptop standing up in the kitchen, 

I thought I would share some of my favourite makes from the year.  Some of these bring back special memories. 

I have made a few Box cards this year. This is the one I made for our daughter's 30th birthday. I drew the paper myself. This reminds me of not only our lovely daughter but also of my love of doodling. 

This is another favourite design of card. It is a Diamond Point card and there are lots of instructions on YouTube for how to make them. On my blog this has been the most looked at card of the year. 

Here is the Christmas card I gave to my in-laws this year. They are both in their 90s and just recently they have started to need care. It is always nice to give them something special. The card was made entirely with John Next Door dies. 

This twisted easel card was my Father-in-Laws birthday card. He still gets out in his garden every day. 

I have been on the Beccy's Place design team for a long time. I do like using her images. The background was made with Snippets which I like doing a lot. There always seem to be more Snippets. 

Here is a special birthday card I made again all with John Next Door dies. I am very thrilled to be one of his Angels. 

I also love reusing old cards. This image worked so well with the paper. 

Here is the Christmas card I made for our Daughter and Son-in-law. Our daughter has always loved penguins. These are Two Jays penguins. I had fun colouring them and cutting them our. 

This is one of the cards that I made for the John Next Door Christmas box kit. I wrote two articles for the magazine, It is so lovely to get opportunities like this.  

Here is one of my favourite cards I made for Beccy's Place. I do love sunflowers. 

Lastly this is the Christmas card I made for our very good friends (the ones we go on Beatles trips with). Our Daughter drew them for us. I also drew the wreath. I know they were thrilled with this card. I am hoping to do more with our Daughter's images in the future. 

I won't be making so many cards going forward. I have decided to stay on the Beccy's Place Design team and on John's Team of Angels. I will only be making special cards for people in between. I expect I will be blogging a lot less. This was the first year for ages we sent bought Christmas Cards. 

Happy New Year to you all. I do hope that 2022 is kinder to all of us. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Cute Penguins on matching Christmas Cards

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How was your weekend? We had a quiet one but we had lots of catching up to do. The garden is well on the way to being winter ready. The birds are enjoying the sunflower heads we have put out for them. 

As you know I have had a lot of family stuff to deal with lately. One way I found to calm down was to colour with my Faber Castell Polychromo pencils. Here are some cards I made with the Two Jays small penguin stamps. I drew the backgrounds for the cards myself. 

I began drawing the backgrounds and colouring these images when we were on our cruise back in September. 

It is just so calming to concentrate on the colouring. 

Here are the four cards together. The Christmas stash is coming on nicely. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Pop-Up Stepper Cards not just for Christmas

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

I hope you are having a good week. 

Here are the last of the cards that I made for the Crafts-Too Birthday shows on the Craft Store last weekend. 

I thought I would share all the Stepper Fold cards I made. 

Christmas and Penguins. 

Christmas and Gnomes. 

You're a Star. 

A floral birthday card. This cards are easy to put together and can be decorated just how you like. 

Enjoy the rest of the week. I will be back doing comments soon. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Two Jays Penguins Christmas Cards and a Birthday Card

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

I hope you have had a good week. I am not posting on my blog so often. There is a lot going on. My parents both have advanced dementia. They are both at home with the support of a live in carer. As time goes on I am having to do more and more. I have decided that I am going to have a social media break for a little while. I will schedule some blog posts but that is all that will happen for a while. I will see how I feel after a break. 

On Sunday Crafts-Too is celebrating its 22nd Birthday. John Lockwood has two hours of shows on the Craft Store to celebrate. For these shows I got to work with some very cute stamps for these shows. 

Here is a CAS birthday card. These cute little stamps aren't just for Christmas. 

I made another box card. I stamped two sets of penguins for this card. 

I drew the background for these penguins. All the colouring was done with my Faber Castell Polychromo pencils. 

This is a Pop-Up Stepper card. The card lays flat for posting, 

Here are all my penguin makes together. Our daughter loves penguins. I am going to use these stamps to make a Christmas card for her. 

Have a good weekend. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Winter Wonderland Challenge blog - Theme Penguins - Sponsor Twinkle Lane Designs

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How has your week been? Yesterday I helped at a Felting Workshop and I am helping at another one today. It is all very well organised there were less than 6 of us and we were all spaced out. I had a visor to wear too. Life is getting a bit busier all round. 

The new challenge has started at the Winter Wonderland Challenge blog. The theme is Penguins and the sponsor is Twinkle Lane Designs. 

The tartan paper was actually a card blank which I cut down to make a mat. After I had coloured the image I thought the colours went together well. 

There are lots of wonderful images in the store. If you click on the logo you will be taken there. 

This image is called Snow Penguin and it is available HERE. I printed onto Neenah card stock and I coloured the image with my Faber Castell Polychromo colouring pencils.  I used the Double Pierced Rectangle dies from Creative Expressions to cut the image and it's mats. 

This sentiment comes with the image. I used the Double Pierced Circle dies from Creative Expressions to cut it out. 

I hope you have time to join in with our challenge. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Penguin Christmas Card for the March Rudolph Days Challenge

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How are you getting on? We are managing okay. Going shopping is a bit hairy but we do need to eat. I am being creative with ingredients. There is lots of time to have a go. We have a big puzzle to dabble with. My husband is working from home and I am making cards and needle felting. Hobbies are great.

I love joining in with the Rudolph Days Challenge each month. It starts on the 25th of the month and runs until the end of the month. This is a great way to keep on top of your Christmas makes. I wonder if things will be okay by Christmas?

Somewhere I saw a sketch that I liked. I decided to follow the sketch for a Design Team make but the image I was working with  just didn't work. I went to my supply of old cards and I found an image that I could use.

I chose matching blue papers. When I follow a sketch I like to mat the shapes with black so the design is obvious. 

I chose this penguin image from my old cards. I cut the image and its mat with some Tonic Dies. The greeting is a Tattered Lace die. 

I was so pleased that I was able to use this sketch and that my effort did not go to waste. Don't worry the Design Team card got made as well. 

I would like to enter the following challenges:

The March Rudolph Days Challenge

Challenge 20 at the Merry Little Christmas (MLCCB) Challenge blog

Challenge 68 at the Holly and the Ivy Challenge blog

The 25th March Challenge at Fezziwigs Festive Frolics Challenge blog

Challenge 482 at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge blog

The March Challenge at Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge

Keep well and stay safe.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Winter Wonderland - Arctic or Antarctic Animals

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitor

How has your week been? I hope you have something nice planned for the weekend. Tonight we are going to see a Dad's Army radio show at our very small local theatre. We have four trips there booked this term. It is so nice having a theatre you can walk to. The rest of the weekend will be spent sorting out jobs around the house and maybe a bit of Christmas shopping.

Today the new challenge starts on the Winter Wonderland Challenge blog and the theme is Arctic or Antarctic animals and the sponsor is SheepSki Designs. 

I made a frame for the image with the Double Pierced Rectangles from Creative Expressions. I used two die cuts at the side that I received with a prize so I don't know which die created them. 

There are lots of cool images in the store click on the logo and you will be taken there. 

This image is called Cool Couple and it is available HERE.  I printed onto Neenah card and coloured with my Promarkers. This is the first image I have coloured for ages. I even coloured the background. I coloured and cut out the penguins and the moon so they they could be mounted on foam. 

I do love this sentiment die from John Next Door. I am using it a lot on my Christmas cards. 

I think I know just who to give this card too. 

Have a great weekend.

I would liked to enter the following challenges:

Challenge 38 at the Holly and the Ivy Challenge blog

Challenge 169 at the Crimbo Crackers Challenge blog

Challenge 406 at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge blog

Challenge 486 at the CRAFT Challenge blog

Challenge 19 at the 2 Crafty Critter Crazies Challenge blog

Challenge 10 at the Crafter's Castle Challenge blog

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Penguin Christmas Card

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you are having a good day. The sun is shining here at last but it is still cold. I said the posts would be shorter and this one will be.

This is the Christmas card I made for our daughter and son-in-law. It will be their first Christmas as a married couple.

I used the Falling Snow Embossing folder in the background. I used the snowflakes from the Winter Stamp set from John Next Door. The trees and the slope were cut with a die that came free with a magazine. 

The penguins were stamped and cut out with a matching stamp and die set from Sizzix. 

The sentiment is in the same set with its own die. 

I used these penguins on their place cards at the wedding. 

Have you heard about the next issue of Quick Cards Made Easy being their last one? It is very sad I have enjoyed that magazine. 

I would like to enter the challenge starting on 19th December at the TTCRD challenge blog and Challenge 508 at the Cute Card Thursday Challenge blog.  

Enjoy the rest of the day. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Snowflake Penguins

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

How is your week going? I know lots of people are on Half Term holidays this week. Our drive is very nearly finished. I must say it is looking very good it is a shame about the rest of the house. Oh well we will just have to save for the next job to be done.

I had a bit of a walk yesterday and I had every intention of being good but I just couldn't resist the Snowflake Penguins die set that came with issue 152 of Papercraft Essentials magazine. When I had finished the card I had been asked to make for a 90th birthday,  I had a little play.

I used some glitter card to make one of the mats and I embossed the top mat with the Falling Snow Embossing folder from Creative Expressions. I added a line of ribbon. 

The penguin, the baby penguin, the fish and a piece of holly come in the die set. I flipped the one of the penguin die cuts so the adults could face each other. The blue snowflakes in the background were cut with the penguin. 

I will be making some more cards with this die set our family is rather fond of penguins. 

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

I would like to enter challenge 40 at the Merry Christmas Challenge blog. 

Happy Crafting.

Hugs Jackie

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Felted Penguin Family

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

How is your week going? Our internet is really playing up which is very frustrating. I do rely on it so much. Hopefully something will be sorted soon.

On Saturday the printing of the Save the Date postcards did not go well. While I was waiting I finished this little felted penguin family. I learnt a bit about felting so I could help at the workshops. I remembered that we had a kit from Hobbycraft. So I got it out to have a go. The wool wasn't as nice as that used at the workshops and I was felting into polystyrene egg shapes.

This is the one I made first. 

Then I made the one with the heart. 

Then I made the tiny egg one. I tried to follow the pattern in the kit. I showed my daughter and she thought they looked like us. Then I realised I should have made her husband. 

So I raided another kit and made another little one. 

I do think they are cute. I might be helping at a couple of workshops next week I am hoping to learn a bit more. 

Enjoy the rest of week

Happy crafting. 

Hugs Jackie

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Christmas Penguins

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you are having a good weekend. Sadly my special plans did not work out so I have nothing exciting to share with you. So today I have been helping my daughter move out of her house in Winchester and into her boyfriend's house in Newbury. Unfortunately this has meant us having to store a lot of furniture at our house. We are still trying to think of the best way to fit it all in. I am sure there will be some trips to the tip. Tomorrow we are visiting a special friend who is not very well. So I will be making good use of the time I have gained.

I have been using Anita's Decoupage sheets again. They were in the bundle I received from Docrafts a few weeks ago. I think a lot of my Christmas cards will be coming from this bundle.

I forgot to take a picture of the sheet these two little sets came from. The penguins are very cute. Both cards are just under 6" x 6" this means they can be made from an A4 sheet. 

Here is a close up of the first card. I had some sparkle card left over from the 60th Anniversary cards I made recently and the backing paper I found in my snippet stash. The shiny blue card was in my Christmas snippets box. 

I used more of the glitter card it had been cut into squares that I just had to resize them for these cards. The backing paper was an off cut too. The decoupage for both cards I made up with a gel glue which is fine if they have time to dry if there isn't time there is always foam pads. 

  

That's another two cards for my stash. These will be ones that I hand out as they are a little to deep for posting. I make flatter cards for posting. 

I would like to enter these cards for Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 192.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and the week ahead. I have quite a few 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie