Retirement card using my favourite Pollyanna Pickering Snowy Owl picture

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How is your weekend going? Yesterday we went up to London to attend a friend's 60th Birthday party. It was lovely to have a catch up. Today we are meeting our daughter in Southampton. She is starting a new job tomorrow and she wants some new work clothes. I want to treat her to a new work bag.

I can't believe this is the last day of September. I realised if I did one more blog post this month I would do better than I did in August. My friend retired last week and I decided to make her a card.

I made the card this way so that I could use one of the matching inserts. The background paper came from an american paper pad that I have had for a while. The doily's I have had for a while too. I really am trying to use things that are in my stash. 

This has to be my all time favourite Pollyanna Pickering picture of a Snowy Owl it is gorgeous. I still have a few left on the pad from Creative World of Crafts. I used my Spellbinders matting and layering dies to cut the image and the mats I used. 

This is a Spellbinders poppy die I often go back to this die even though I have other poppy dies. 

The picket fence is a Marianne die. The sentiment was cut with a Britannia die. 

I will get this in the post on Monday. It should be nice and flat for posting. Enjoy the rest of the weekend. It is October tomorrow. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Celebrate

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. We popped up to see our daughter and her fiance about wedding invitations yesterday and today they are off to their venue for a food tasting. So wedding plans are moving along.

Today something exciting is happening the present leader and his wife is handing over to a new leader and his wife. We have got to know the new leaders quite well and I made them a card to celebrate this change. It will be a big difference  for church but a good one. The service for the handover will take place this morning.

I based this card on one I made for an ordination a while ago. I used Distress Ink on embossing to highlight the detail. I used the ivy die cuts to break up some of the lines. 

I made with with a die that I won at the Pixie's Snippets Playground a few weeks ago. The die is from IO (Impression Obsession) it is called Birthday Top Edgers there are two other dies in the set. 

 

I cut the Spellbinders cross die in gold and offset it with a brown one to give a shadow. 

We popped the card through their door yesterday I hope they like it. I it was actually harder writing the message than making the card I needed my husband did help me. Enjoy the rest of the weekend, We are planning a quiet day after church my husband has a bit of a cold. 

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

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Good bye Eileen

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope that you are having a good week. Today we are saying a final goodbye to our good friend Eileen. Her funeral is this morning and is followed by a woodland burial in the afternoon. It is all so sad.

This is the card that I made for her family to let them know that we are thinking of them and to offer them support. These cards are never easy to make and I knew I didn't want to use black any where in the design. In fact we have been asked not to wear black at the funeral.

I remembered my cloud embossing folder so I used that for the background. 

The cross is a Spellbinders die this set has been useful over the the years. The ivy and the oval frame were created with dies designed by Sue Wilson. 

The sentiment was cut with some Britannia dies. 

Eileen had a few weeks treatment free before the end. The family made the most of this time they all visited some of her favourite places and people. They had these photos taken. The top one shows Eileen surrounded by her close family. 

Good bye Eileen you will be sadly missed. 

I do hope this card brought a little comfort. It was lovely to be told that receiving the Save the Date fridge magnet,  for our daughter's wedding, cheered Eileen up in those last few days. It was something to look forward to but was not to be. 

I would like to enter Challenge 299 at Penny's Paper-Crafting Challenge Blog, Challenge 333 at the Craft your Passion Challenge Blog and the Add a Sentiment Challenge at the Crafting by Designs Challenge Blog. 

Take care. 

Hugs Jackie

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Confirmation Card for a Girl

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How was your weekend? Some shocking things have unfolded in France.

I am sharing the second card I made for the Confirmation Service last Sunday. This one was for a girl.

I used the Peony Blossom Charisma die and matching CD images as the focus for this card. I love this combination of colours. I chose the colour of the layers to match the colours of the flowers. The top pale blue layer was embossed with the Sue Wilson Rows of Bows Pinpoint embossing folder. 

I cut a white oval for the centre of the card and embossed it with a small dotty embossing folder. The cross was cut with a Spellbinders die. I cut four of the images and arrange them around the oval. 

I cut the letters with some Tonic alphabet dies. I added Candi to the corners of the card. 

This was the same size as the card for the boy and the names were placed in the same place. The Vicar was pleased when I dropped the cards off on Friday. I wasn't at the service to see the Confirmation which was a shame I had rather a lot to do.  

I do hope that you have a good week. 

Happy crafting.

Hugs Jackie

Ribbons, Pearls and Poppies.

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

The weekend is here! I wonder if you have got any crafty plans? I will crafting for most of tomorrow during the day and  then in the  evening we have friends coming to stay for the night. We haven't done that for ages. I have already started planning for my Easter Holiday and a trip to Ally Pally is in the the offing. I have done well for craft shows this year. I do have a very patient husband.

My mother-in-law has requested a card for one of her friends made using my Poppy, Sweet Poppies stencil. She like the one I made for her last year so much. The afternoon started with Translucent Paste, Distress ink and glitter. I have two  images drying to use tomorrow. But I wanted to make a card this afternoon so I decided just to ink one.

I started by inking through the the stencil with distress ink using cut'n'dry foam

I don't mind if the colours overlap a bit I think it adds depth to the image. I have some matting basics Spellbinder dies and I cut the image out with one of those and I was able to cut a red mat to match it perfectly.

The sentiment is one designed by Sam Poole for Creative Expressions.

This poppy was cut with a Spellbinders die and I did a little paper piecing. 

I bought these graduated pearls at the Farnborough Craft show there was an even larger one that I didn't use. I used some extra glue to hold them in place. 

I would like to enter this for the current challenge on the Crafting Musketeers Challenge Blog this time the theme is ribbons and pearls.  I have another card for my stash. You might be wondering why this one isn't for my Mother-in-law she actually wanted a smaller card. I know I will be able to think of someone suitable for this one. 

Have a great weekend whatever you are up to. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Where has all the time gone?

Hi my Blog Friends

I can't believe we have already got to January 7th. I haven't had much time to craft during the Christmas and New Year holidays. Hopefully things can start getting back to normal now we are all back to work in our house.

We had some very happy news just after Christmas, two of our close friends announced their engagement. Of course I wanted to make a card for them.

 

This tent card started with  a Kraft card  8" x 8" card  blank.  I  made the pink mat at a friend's house using Distress ink on a Gelli plate one day when we were having a play. I thought it went well with the turquoise paper I had in my stash.

The hearts were cut with a Spellbinders die. I cut and inked two hearts for the background from a patterned  paper which was then covered with a double sided sticky sheet and sprinkled with Cosmic Shimmer Micro Beads.

This is the inside I inked through a mask I had a mat in the middle while I inked  to give an area to write in. All the wording I used was cut with Britannia word dies.

I do hope that your new year has started well and continues as such.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie 

New Home

Hi Bloggers

How is your week going? I am back to work after a half term break. This means fitting crafting in when I can. My Grand Calibur has made it back to Create and Craft now I have to wait and see what they are going to do about it.

I made two versions of today's card as I know two  people who are moving home soon. The two versions are slightly different to each other but I prefer this one. At least they will never be next to each other on the shelf to be compared.

To create the background I first cut the window with a Spellbinders die from some white card. I put the window to one side and then embossed the card with a mask. Once it was embossed I used some Distress ink  and inked through the mask to create the brickwork. 

I stuck some spotty paper behind the aperture and then reinserted the window I had cut earlier.

The flower pots and herb plants were cut with three sets of Spellbinders dies. 

The sentiment was cut with two  Brittania word dies, I backed it with a Spellbinders die that I cut about a bit to achieve the look I wanted. 

The cards are quite flat cards as I like to post New Home cards to people who have just moved house as I think it is good to get something nice in the post in your new home not just bills. 

That is all for now. Enjoy the rest of the week. Thank you for your visit it means a lot to me.

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

Flower Pots and Chocolate - Happy Birthday

Hi Bloggers

Thank you for all your comments on my Father-in-laws 90th Birthday celebrations. He had a wonderful two days and now he can cut the grass in safety.

Today's project is a card and matching chocolate wrapper. This is a good way to jazz up an ordinary present to make it a bit special.  I do like things to match.

The dies are from Spellbinders, I had wanted them for a long time and then they became available on an offer and it would have been rude not to. I love plants in pots and these looked great. Each pot is a different set and there is even a little die in each so you can cut different coloured tops without cutting the whole plant.

Not one but two bars of rather nice chocolate all in the one wrapper.

Here is the detail on the card quite simple really so I will be making some more of these to have in my card stash.

I hope you all have a good week. 

Happy crafting 

Hugs Jackie

Dasher the Deer in a Pop -up box

Hi Everyone

I hope you are enjoying the slight change in the weather. My poor garden has been crying out for the rain, personally I hope we see a bit more sun.

Today I am sharing my latest Design team post for Creative Studios by Sam Poole. I have never made a pop-up box card before and I was pleasantly pleased with how this one turned out. There are lots of online tutorials for how to create one of these I choose one that was easy to follow and used that.

There is lots of matting and layering to do on all the side panels. I used up lots of fiddly little bits of card that had been laying around for a while in my crafty stash. All the stamps I used: the stars, the trees and the Merry Christmas are all part of Sam's new range of Christmas stamps.

This is the detail on two of the side panels.

This show the slats that hold everything in place. I put the snowflakes (that had been cut with Spellbinder dies) onto acetate to hold them in place. I used a very strong wet glue and I left it to dry over night. 

Here is Dasher he was coloured by Promakers. I did reinforce his antlers with some card behind them.

 Finally this is the card folded isn't it brilliant that they fold flat. Next time I will make sure my snowflakes don't extend outside the folded box as this will make it easier to put in an envelope. Also I wouldn't score the back panel so that it makes a better backdrop for the card.

Thank you for looking. 

Hugs Jackie

Click on the logo to visit Sam's Shop all the stamps are available there.

New Twin boys

Hi Everyone

I hope you are all well and enjoying the summer. I work in a school so it is a good chance for me to catch up on lots of things.

This card was made for one of my daughter's friends who has just had twin boys.

The image is from a LOTV stamp that I have had for a while (the set of stamps was a good investment). I colured the images with Promarkers. The embossing folders was one of Sue Wilson's (Lattice Heart A4). The wording dies are Britannia  dies the "With Love" was a Spellbinders die.

Thank you for stopping by and for leaving any comments. I am trying to post more often.

Hugs Jackie

Hearts and music 80th Birthday Card

Hi Crafty friends

As you can see from my previous post this has not been a good week for me with the death of my aunt. I have also been very busy crafting. Why is when you are really busy that is when people ask you to make cards for them. I do find it hard to say no as there is something special about being asked to make something for an important time in their lives. I'm rambling, on to the card. This one was a commission for a wife to give her trumpet playing husband.

There are lots  of musically themed elements: the backing paper, the Tattered Lace die cuts and the embossing folder.

The hearts were made from a Spellbinders die set. I covered a piece of card with a double sided sticky sheet and then die cut the two heart shapes. This way the sticky sheet goes right to the edge of the shape and I covered it with Morris Dance gilding flakes by Indigo Blue. The with the filigree part of the dies and the outer hear die I cut the top layer and stuck these on top of the gilding. 

This is a Tattered Lace die and I must admit that it did cut beautifully.

I do like keeping the insert simple so that there is room to write.

Have a great weekend what ever you are doing.

Thanks for stopping by and for any comments you might leave. 

Hugs Jackie