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

Fantasy Stampers - The Colour Purple

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you have had a good and are ready for a fab weekend. I have a busy one ahead part of the time we will be helping our daughter to move. She will be moving nearer to her work which make sense to save on travel expenses.

There is a new challenge starting today on the Fantasy Stampers Challenge Blog the theme is The Colour Purple which also happens to be my favourite colour.

My friend's birthday is soon so I made this card for her as her favourite colour is purple too.  To create the background I used the Clarity Stamp Heart Rose. It was stamped with Perfect Medium and heat embossed with a clear powder and then inked over with two shades of Distress Ink. 

The rose was created with the My Paper Stash 3D Rose stamp set. I stamped the set with Plum Archival ink and then I cut out the shapes with my ScanNcut I could never have cut the leaves like that by hand. Then I used Distress Ink to paint the rose with a watercolour brush. The layers were put together with gel glue. 

In the top corner I added the large butterfly by Visible Image.

I hope my friend likes this card I know she will like the colour. 

Don't forget the challenge at Fantasy Stampers and if you check back tomorrow the winners of the last challenge will be announced. 

Have a great weekend. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

A Wedding Card for a Special Couple

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you are having a good week. So far the weather here hasn't been too good here but that does mean craft time for me. I can't believe that it is nearly the end of the school holiday. The time really has whizzed by.

I was asked by our Vicar to make a card for the girl who used to play drums in our music group as she is getting  married in a few weeks. She was a very big part of our church life and lots of people remember her fondly.

This is an A4 card so it can be signed by everyone. To create the background I found some pretty paper in my stash with words and birds on it. I cut two lattices with a cutting file on my ScanNcut I cut one edge off both so they could be joined together to cover the paper. I cut three of the Sue Wilson Ivy Border die and put these at the edge of the card one was cut in half so the whole side was covered. 

I used my Tattered Florals Bigz die to make the flowers with the addition of the Spellbinders die for the centers and a flat backed pearl to finish them off. All the flowers were shaped with a ball tool on a spongy mat. The flowers all started white but I inked them before I shaped them.  

The hearts were made with a Sue Wilson die I made a mat by drawing round the die. The White centers were embossed with the Bed of  Roses embossing folder. The letters were cut with my Tonic dies they were cut once in blue and once in white. Now I have a spare set in reverse.  I might use them on the envelope. 

I have left the inside quite plain with a lot of space for signing. I hope the flowers will keep their shape. I do hope you all enjoy the rest of the week. 

I would like to enter this for Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 191. All the flowers were made with snippets. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Sunflower Candi

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How has your week been so far? I has been very wet here so I am spending the last week of my holiday crafting. Not all bad then. I am hoping to get ahead with some of my Design Team makes. If everything works out I will be doing something exciting at the weekend. I will let you know about it if it actually happens.

This is just a brief  post from me today. I wanted a quick birthday card so I turned to my members gift from C&C -  the Craftwork Cards pad and Candi.

The image from the pad made the topper with the Candi added. I stick the Candi on to the card with a gell glue I find this easier than sticky pads. 

I do like sunflowers they are such bright cheerful flowers. 

There you have it a nice quick card. 

I hope the rest of the week is kind to you.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Happy Christmas Robins

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you have had a good weekend. The weather here has been very nice until Saturday evening when it started raining. My husband had last week off work and we did get to do some nice things. The last treat was going to Bournemouth with our daughter to see Michael McIntyre in his new show Happy and Glorious. It was very funny and I will be buying the DVD when it comes out.

I have been making Christmas cards again. This time I used a sheet from Kanban. I just love robins on Christmas cards.

I made two cards with the main images on the sheet. The paper came from my stash it is all covered with robins. 

Both of these cards are 8" x 8". I used some Sizzix dies to frame the images. 

The sentiments were on the sheet too with matching robins. 

There was a smaller image on the sheet and I made this  5" x 5" card out of the snippets from the other cards. 

Here is the toy department at Selfridges and you can see the dinosaur which cost £4500. Someone asked if we were tempted to buy it and which we weren't but it was nice to look at. 

That is another three cards for the Christmas stash. I do need lots more so there will be many more Christmas makes on the way. 

I hope you have a great week. I have just one week of the school holiday left. I had better make the most of it. 

Happy crafting.

Hugs Jackie

Two more Christmas Cards

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you have had a great week and it is nearly the weekend. My husband has been on leave this week and we went to our first Silver Screening at the cinema. You can start going to these screenings when you are 55 it costs £3.95 each to see the film and you get a coffee. We saw the romantic film The Longest Ride. This was followed up with a nice lunch altogether it made a good day out. On Wednesday we went to London.

I have been playing with the goodies I got from Docrafts again. I really like Anita's decoupage sheets.

These are the cards I made.

This is the sheet the images came on. 

For both cards I used my Sue Wilson corner dies they are so pretty and frame the images so well.

Here is a close up of the image I assembled the decoupage with gel glue. 

I decided not to put a sentiment on the cards there is one on the insert. 

This is a beautiful image. 

Just to get you in more of a Christmas mood this is one of the Christmas trees they had in the Christmas shop in Selfridges. It is a lovely shop to visit some of the toys are amazing there was a six foot dinosaur that cost £4500. 

I have made a good start with my Christmas cards. These sets from Docrafts are really helping and the corner snowflake die of course. 

I hope you have a good weekend whatever you have planned. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Playing with Ladybirds

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends 

I hope you are having a good week so far. My husband has been home this week so we have got lots of things sorted out in the house and garden. We have also managed to visit some people we haven't seen for a long time. 

Last week I was in the supermarket looking at the craft magazines and I spotted Papercraft Essentials magazine and the free die that came with it. When I saw how versatile it was I couldn't resit. I didn't get to play with the die until Sunday morning. 

I decided to use the die to create ladybirds. I also made this fun 6" x 6" card completely from snippets.  

The die from the magazine cut the body, spots and eyes of the ladybird. I used the center of another die to make the wings and added goggly eyes. I made the antennae from the center of a flower die. 

This is a closer view of the center of the card. A Spellbinder die cut the heart circle I used the cut out hearts for the corner of the card. The flowers behind the ladybirds were left over from other projects. 

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

I would like to enter this for Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 190. That's two cards in a week for me I do have a lot of snippets. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Unicorn Challenge Blog - My preview card

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

There is a new challenge blog starting in September and I am on the Design Team. The blog is called the Unicorn Challenge Blog. In the weeks leading up to the start of the first challenge the Design Team are taking it in turns to share a card for inspiration. This week is my turn. If you join the site you will be kept up to date with all the news and be ready to join in with the challenges when they start.

I made this card for my father-in-law. His birthday is in September and you may remember me saying that he is visually impaired and because of this I like to make him cards with texture.  On Saturday he took part in the celebrations of the anniversary of VJ day he could easily be seen in the march past. I did manage to take some photos from the television.

The gold background was embossed with the A4 embossing folder Celtic Flower by Creative Expressions. To create the scene behind the squirrel I inked through a leaf mask with various shades of Distress Ink. Then I stamped a newsprint stamp randomly over the background. Finally I embossed it with the Birch Trees mask also from Creative Expressions once embossed I inked the trees through the mask. I cut a tree with a memory box die. The leaves were made with some embossing punches from my stash they were inked to highlight the embossing and to tone down the colour of the papers. 

I found a stamp that fitted this Spellbinder die to create the sentiment. 

The squirrel is called Nutkin and he is available from Creative Expressions. He was coloured with Promarkers. 

I hope that you have a good week and that you manage to fit in some crafting along the way. 

I would like to join in with Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 190 and challenge 73 at Crafting from the Heart. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Fantasy Stampers - Boy's Rule!

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope that you have had a good week and that the weather has not affected your plans too much. I have had a week on my own at home which has meant that I have had lots of time to craft. I know I am lucky in this respect. Surprisingly I didn't get as much done as I thought I might.

Today sees the start of a new challenge on the Fantasy Stamper Challenge Blog and the new theme is Boys Rule! This is a good excuse to make one of those pesky masculine cards that we all find a bit tricky but are usually fine when we get going. For my card I am sharing the one I made for my husband's birthday, which was the day we came back from the cruise. For this reason I wanted to make a nautically themed card. We celebrated by having a very nice afternoon tea at Marks and Spencer.

I started by making the background I used a stamp set from My Paper World called "At the Seaside". It has all sorts of nautical elements the maps and compass I stamped in Perfect Medium and I heat embossed with silver powder. Then I stamped the anchors with Perfect Medium and heat embossed them with white powder. Finally I inked over the page with three shades of blue Distress Ink. 

To create the topper I used the "Nautical Words" stamp by Creative Expressions. I had some nautical postcards in my stash, one of a cruise ship, that seemed appropriate for the design. 

I hope you have a good weekend. If you check back tomorrow on the Fantasy Stampers Challenge Blog you can find the winners of the last challenge. Also there is Design Team call out at the moment. 

I would like to join in with the challenge at Crafting by Design - 3 or more layers. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Gorjuss girl in a Hat

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

Well the weather has finally cleared up here, most of the day has been full of rain. I hope you have had a good day whatever the weather has been like for you.

Just before I went on holiday I was very lucky to receive a parcel of goodies from the Docrafts Bloggers outreach program. I have already made some Christmas cards and shared them with you (there will be more to come). This little decoupage set was in the pack as well.

So today on this wet day I made a 7" x 7" card using the mini Decoupage set by Santoro called The Hatter.

I embossed the teal card with the A4 embossing Large Bed of Roses by Creative expression I inked it with Black Soot Distress ink to tone down the colour of the card. The backing paper had in my stash from another Gorjuss paper set. The ribbon was sent to me as well there are six types of ribbon in the pack. 

This heart I cut with a square die from some packaging that came with one of my sets. It was mounted on black and covered with Glossy Accents. 

This shows the detail of the decoupage she is very pretty. To match the the flowers in the image I used a Spellbinder die to cut a poppy. 

I have been making a lot of cards without sentiments lately. This gives me a bit more flexibility if I haven't made the card with someone or something in mind. 

Here is a link to the Docrafts site where you can find out where to get this delightful set. 

I would like to enter this card into challenge 45 at Creative Craft Cottage. 

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

Best Wishes

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I am well and truly back the washing is all sorted and lots of other jobs have been done. I am slowly catching up with my crafty projects. It did take me a while to get back into the swing of  things, I am lucky that I get so much time to play in the summer.

Sadly while we were away the lady who plays the piano for most of our church services had a stroke and was taken into hospital. She is quite poorly and it will be a while before we know how much she has been affected. I decided to make a card to send to her.

I wanted to make something bright and cheerful and I also wanted a musical element to the card. I remembered a card I had made before in browns and I decided to adapt the design,  I made the backing paper first by stamping both sizes of butterfly from Visible Image in four shades of Distress Ink they were then heat embossed with a clear powder and the whole page was inked over in two shades of blue Distress Ink. I do like my Distress Inks. 

For the topper I found some free printable pink music paper on the internet. I cut it to size with one of my Tonic square dies this made cutting the mat for it easier. I stamped the Visible Image Inkcognito Butterfly with Perfect Medium and I heat embossed it with some gold powder. On some separate card I stamped the Large butterfly which was heat embossed and then inked over with two shades of Distress ink this I cut out by hand, I found a small "Best Wishes" stamp for the corner. The topper was mounted on foam tape. I cut  tattered lace musical notes die four times and added them to the design.

I do hope this card cheers the lady up a bit. She has done so much for our church I hope that she gets better soon.

I am enjoying having the time to craft that the summer holidays brings. I hope you are having a good week. 

I would like to enter this for the Challenge 72 at Crafting from the Heart and 

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 189.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Delightful Digi's - Pansies Project Sheet

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I am back from holiday and this is my first post since returning on Friday. It takes so long to get sorted after a holiday. On Sunday we had a family meal to celebrate my parents diamond wedding anniversary that is 60 years. I even arranged for them to get their message from the Queen. If you have a digital copy of the wedding certificate this is very easy to do online.

Today I am sharing an easel card I made using the Pansies Project sheet from the O-Sew-Sweet collection available at  the Delightful Digi's Blog. I aslo used the Pansies Background sheet in red which is also available from the O-Sew-Sweet collection.

I started with a 7" x 7" kraft card blank and trimmed it a bit then  I scored one of the sides in half to create the easel. I cut a topper from another card blank. You can make two easel cards from three card blanks. 

I coloured the pansies with Promarkers and I cut them out with my Brother ScanNCut once cut I layered them up with a gel glue. 

The sentiment also came from the O-Sew-Sweet collection there is a sheet of sentiments.

I decorated the base  in the same way as the topper and I added the matching ribbon. To make the stopper I used the smaller square from the project sheet and I coloured a single pansy from a second sheet. Once you have a digital sheet you can print and colour them as much as you want. The stopper was mounted on foam pads so it could hold back the easel topper.

Thank you for visiting my blog and looking at what I have to share. I hope that you have a good week.

I will leave you with a picture from our holiday. 

It does rather sum it up. 

Happy Crafting. 

Hugs Jackie