Butterflies and Brads

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

We are half way through the week and I am already looking forward to the weekend. How is your week going?

I made this card for the Challenge at the Butterfly Challenge Blog, this time it is Challenge 22 Butterflies and Brads.  I used lots of Snippets to make this card so I would like to enter the challenge at Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 160.

As the challenge involved brads I started off by looking through my stash to see what I could find. I was delighted to find four small flower brads in two colours and that set the colour scheme for the card, you can see them in the corners.

Everyday I have a peek at Sue Wilson's blog and I remembered that she had made a card using this technique that is where my inspiration came from. 

I cut the apertures with the  Sue Wilson die set  Magical Butterflies I love how they put detail around the edges of the aperatures. The little butterflies were cut with the smallest die from the set.

I stamped the back images with Black Archival and heat embossed them with CS Clear fine detail embossing powder. Then I inked the images with several shades of distress ink. I moved the images around behind the apertures until I was happy with the effect before I stuck them in place.

The sentiment was cut with a Signature die. I was really pleased with how the card turned out. 

I hope the rest of the week is good for you.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Pop-up Box Card for a 16th Birthday

Hi My Blog Friends

I hope you had a good weekend. We managed to get so many jobs done which was very satisfying,   my husband's back is better and we are cold free. Our daughter moved the last of her stuff out and this made it easier to get lots sorted. I am very keen to buy some craft storage in an attempt to tame my ever growing stash.

The card I am sharing today was another commission I do seem to be getting more commissions lately. It would be nice to be in the position to be able to fund my hobby.

It is quite a large card having been made from an A3 sheet of card which was scored on my Hougie board.

The flowers were punched,  the numbers were cut with some X-cut dies and the butterflies with a Sizzix die.

All the other mauve panels were embossed but I don't seem to have photographed them. I kept the front panel flat to take the sentiment which was made with a  Signature die and some tonic letter dies. I was very pleased that the name fitted on the panel.

This photo shows the slats across the box and how I arranged the elements once they were attached to strips of acetate. Of course it all packs flat to fit an envelope.

I did promise that if everything worked out with our daughter's rabbits I would share a picture of them. Well the good news is that everything seems fine and they are getting on well.

Aren't they cute and they are very affectionate with each other. We were helped hugely by CottonTails Rescue in Westbury, Wiltshire. 

I hope you have a good week with lots of 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

A Card for an Ordination

Hi My Blog Friends

I hope you are all well and that the weather is being kind to you. Right down here in the south we haven't  had any snow so far but it is wet.

The curate at our church asked me if I would make a card for her friend who is being ordained soon. This is the design I came up with, I must say she was very pleased with the result.

The background card was embossed at my friend's house as I still didn't have my Grand Calibur.

The cross is from a Spellbinders set and I cut it twice once in gold and once in brown and offset them slightly.

I embossed the mat  and added pearls made with CS Pearl PVA glue. I left this to dry before I assembled the rest of the card.

The ivy was cut with a Sue Wilson die. It is a two die set and I cut each die twice in cream and twice in gold and I offset the gold and the cream like I did with the cross.

I wasn't sure whether to add the Congratulations or not but as you can see I decide I would.

Look what eventually turned up this week. I haven't used it yet but I will be I have so missed the embossing. I pre-ordered it at the beginning of November I am very pleased it is here now.

So there you have it. I seem to be getting quite a few commissions at the moment. I even managed to sell my husband's Valentine's card - I am a bad wife. I will have to make him an even nicer one.

Enjoy the rest  of the week.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

A Quick Thank You Card

Hi My Blog Friends

I hope you had a great weekend. We took our daughter to collect her rabbit and it's new friend from where they had been staying to become bonded. All the signs are looking good and they seem to get on well. When we are completely sure everything is OK I will share some pictures with you. The new rabbit is a little sweetie so I hope it does work out.

I received an extra Christmas present when I got back to work meaning that I needed an extra thank you card. This is what I came up with and it is made entirely of scraps making me very happy. I would like to enter it for the challenge on Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 159.

Even the card blank was made from some card in my stash. The die I used was a Spellbinders label die. I cut two for the centre and another two to cut the corners all in black card.

This shows the detail of the corner and the lovely paper which has added sparkle.

The sentiment was also cut with a Spellbinders word die set and I added some CS Pearl PVA glue dots. I was very pleased with the end result. For me it is quite a small card being 5" x  5".

I hope you have a great week and manage to do lots of crafty things.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

An Early Valentine's Day Card

Hi My Blog Friends

Everything is back to normal at our house we are all back to work and we mostly seem to be fit and well.  How are you all getting on?

This is the Valentine's Day card that I have made for my husband. I got this done early as I have some wedding invites to make in the next few weeks as well as a couple of commissions I have picked up a long the way.

I used a Clarity stamp to create the background and the focal element of this card. I stamped the All You Need is Love stamp with CS Perfect Medium and heat embossed it with White Fine Detail embossing powder. 

I cut the stamp out with one of my heart dies and to get the black mat I drew round the outside of the die and cut that out by hand,

There you have it all done and dusted and I know it is there when the time comes. I hate  making things in a rush it never ends well.  I did feel a bit guilty about the Christmas card I made him because it came from a kit. This one is a bit more creative. 

I would like to enter this in the Craft Stamper Magazine January Challenge "Take a Stamp".

I hope your weekend goes well. We are off to pick up a couple of rabbits tomorrow, for our daughter, if all goes well I will post some pictures soon they are very cute. 

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