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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Emerald City Crafts Blog Challenge

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How is your week going? The fridge and the freezer are safely here and working perfectly.

The new Emerald City Crafts Challenge Blog first ever challenge starts today.

It is a  monthly challenge which starts on the first Friday of each month. The theme is always Anything Goes and that means you can create anything! Mixed media, tags, ATC's or cards.
The challenge will be open for 3 weeks. The winner and top 3 will receive a badge with their name added. The blog is run by Linda Simpson and she has an Etsy shop where she sells Ephemeral and papers.

The image came from a set of images that Linda sells. The music paper and the ribbon were in my stash. I added some texture with the stitched flag dies by Creative expressions and some distress ink. 

As there were poppies I decided to add die cut poppies. 

I do like making poppies. 

Why not join us for our first challenge. 

I would like to enter challenge 47 at the Crafting with Friends Challenge blog , challenge 134 at the Creative Fingers Challenge blog and challenge 47 at the A Bit More Time to Craft Challenge blog.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Some Good News - Emerald City Crafts

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How is your weekend going? We had a busy day yesterday running round doing things with our daughter towards the wedding. The wedding dress is back and I can lace it.  It should be a quieter day today.

This is just a quick post from me to share some news. There is a new Challenge Blog starting being run by Linda Simpson. She has started an Etsy shop where she sells papers and ephemera. The new challenge blog is called the  Emerald City Crafts Challenge Blog.  The challenges start on the first Friday of the month and will run for three weeks the theme will always be Anything Goes. I was thrilled when Linda asked me to join her Design Team. The first challenge will start on 7th July.

I have created a tag with one of the images available from the store if you go the blog there is a link to the shop.

I picked up some Tim Holtz tags in a sale I think they are going to be very useful. I had the lace and the backing paper in my stash. 

This is the image it comes in a set. 

It would be lovely if you could join us for our first challenge. 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. 

I would like to enter challenge 254 at the Brown Sugar Challenge blog. 

Take care. 

Hugs Jackie

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Birthday Card for a Birthday Surprise

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope that you had a fantastic weekend and got all the things done that you wanted to do. As I said on Saturday we spent the day on the Isle of Wight where we attended the surprise birthday party of an old friend. We had a lovely time and it was good to catch up. Our friend was so pleased to see so many old faces.

I wanted to share with you the card that I made for him. He is really into motorbikes but unfortunately I didn't have an image of one to use and I wanted a vintage feel to the card.

This was a rather quick card to make. I cut all the mats and layers. The top layer was stamping card. I stamped this with the Happy Birthday set of stamps from Visible Image with Perfect Medium and I heat embossed them with a clear glittery embossing powder. Then I inked over the page with three shades of Distress Ink. I was wondering if all the colours work together all the combinations I have used seem to work. 

The 60 was cut with some X-cut dies. The vintage postcards I had in my stash and I mounted them to match the layering of the main card. I added to ribbons (also from my stash) around the middle one on top of the other. 

We had a great day on the Isle of Wight with our friends. We visited Haven Street steam railway we couldn't go on the trains, because of a private charter, but we had had a good look round this is where I took the photos. After this we headed to Shanklin and had a lovely meal in a pub over looking  the sea. It was then off to Godshill to buy cider and have a coffee. Finally we headed to Arreton, where the party was going to be, we had a drink in a very comfortable pub before we headed to the party. Our friend was so surprised to see us all there was food, dancing and lots of cake. We got the ferry back at 11:55pm. It was a long day but a very good day. We really don't go to the island enough considering how close we live to it and it is lovely. 

There you have my vintage themed birthday card. I do hope he likes the card his birthday isn't until Thursday and he was saving all his cards and presents until then  

Have a great week.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Crafts Galore Encore - Anything Goes

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you are having a good day. I have been back to work this morning it was a training day so no children not until tomorrow.

I don't usually post twice in one day. Two of the Design Teams I am on their challenges start today. This is my inspiration card for the Crafts Galore Encore challenge blog. The theme of the challenge is Anything Goes and it really can be anything, any craft you like. I make a lot of cards so that is what I stuck to.

I have had the Sizzix accordion die for a very long time and I decided this was finally time to use it.  The die cuts the card with flaps to attach one piece to another piece and the score lines for folding. 

In my stash I had a very old Hunkydory kit with pre-made card blanks I decided to cut them up to make this card. That way everything toned together. 

The kit came with vintage toppers that fitted the die cuts so well. 

This is not a particularly easy card to photograph. I do like how it folds out. I thought the use of pearls and the corners were a nice finishing touch.  

This is the front of the card and would be what someone would see when it is first opened.  Now I have used this die once I have lots of ideas for what to do next. I would like to make a mini album for the grandparents with photos of all the grandchildren and their partners. 

We have a Sponsor this month Di's Digis and the prize it three images of the winners choice from the store. The Design Team didn't get any images to use but I have looked at the store and the images are very cute. 

Don't forget the theme is Anything Goes so there is lots of scope and the entry doesn't have to be a card. 

I would like to enter the challenge at Try it on a Tuesday - try something new. 

I would also like to enter the challenge at Cuttlebug Mania - Anything Goes.

I hope that you have a good week.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Cardz 4 Guyz - Flight

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I do hope you are having a good week here we are at Tuesday already. We are off to the theatre tonight. The local  theatre did a good offer on a murder mystery play and it would have been rude not to.

This is my last Guest Design Team card for Cardz 4 Guyz this time the theme is Flight. I have really enjoyed making the cards for this months challenges.  I find I am more creative when I have a theme to work to. I do hope they will have me back sometime. Why not come and join in the fun?

The design started with some vintage pictures of planes and that set the tone of the card.

I had the backing paper in my stash I loved the strong colours and the bold lines.

I had a few similar images and I did want to use them all on the card. In the end I decided it was all too cluttered so I settled for just one focal image. 

I stamped the sentiment with Sepia ink. I have been using this stamp a lot lately. I have the Spellbinders matting basics dies and this stamp fits well inside one of the smaller ones and it is easy to make a mat for it. 

I have a hot air balloon die and I used it to cut a page from an old music book I inked through the die before I removed the paper. Other elements on the card were cut from a 12" x 12" page and inked them to make them look older.

I have really enjoyed being Guest on Cardz 4 Guyz. I hope the rest of the week is kind to you.  

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Vintage Birthday Card

Hi My Blog Friends

How has your week been? I work in a school and on Tuesday we got the dreaded call and on the next two days we had an Ofsted inspection. We won't know the outcome until next week. I do hope that you had a better week.

I don't usually do Vintage but I found this beautiful image in my stash so I thought I would have a go. On the Crafting Musketeers Blog their monthly challenge (21) is hats or Valentine so I thought I would enter.

Isn't she cute and isn't that a big hat? The card blank I used was 8" x 8". I cut an aperture in the coconut white card and then I embossed it and inked the edges. All the dies I used were Sue Wilson dies.

Just a close up of the image. I know just who I can send this card to she loves all things vintage.

Here is is the detail of the flowers. There are four layers to each flower and they were inked with Walnut stain Distress ink I added a flat back pearl to the centre of the flowers.

I am so glad it is Friday. I hope you all have a great weekend.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie