Happy New Year!

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I know it is a couple of days before we celebrate the coming of the  New Year. We have been invited to our future in-laws to for a small party that should be fun we all get on well. There is even talk of hiring a big house altogether next year for Christmas.

This is a card I made for the Reader's Design Team for issue 160 of Quick Cards Made Easy Magazine. My card wasn't one of the main ones featured in the magazine but it was featured as a small thumbnail with my name down the side.

I used lots of elements from the bonus papers to make this card. I also matted the layers with matt black card and gold mirror card. 

I used my Hougie board to  create some rosettes. 

I used some of the sentiments on this card. 

I like the small image of the champagne glasses. 

I must admit that I am looking forward to next year. I have about 6 months to get all the things I need to make for the wedding made. I am cutting back on a few things to make this possible. Of course I need to think about an outfit as well and my husband will need a new suit. 

I would like to enter challenge 458 at the Cute Card Thursday Challenge blog and challenge 118 at the Inspiration Destination Challenge blog. 

I hope that you have a great start to the New Year. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Please follow my blog with Bloglovin

My Favourite Five cards of 2016

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas. I know it is not easy for many people for lots of different reasons. We did have a lovely time with our daughter and her fiance and our future in-laws on Christmas day at their new house.  Then on Boxing Day we took my in-laws to my brother-in-law's house for another family celebration. Our daughter is back to work now and we are playing catch up. It is lovely to have some time off.

I did this last year and I decided to repeat this year. That is sharing my favourite cards from the year.

7th May Fantasy Stampers - Flower Power

24th June Alphabet Challenge I for Ink it Up

12th July Daisy Cluster - Thank you

6th Dec Unicorn Challenge - Add some Glitter

7th November LOTV Wedding Card

Oh boy it was a lot harder choosing than I thought it would be. Maybe next year I will do a top ten. All these cards have been featured on my blog over the past year. I have put the dates when the cards were put on my blog and I have linked back to the pages where the instructions are. I do like my square cards don't I. 

Enjoy the rest of the week. We are hoping to get to the cinema sometime. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Please follow my blog with Bloglovin

Thank you.

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope everything is sorted for your Christmas.  We will be spending the day with our daughter and her fiance and his parents. It will be the first one in their new house. Of course 2017 will be a big year for us with the wedding. My husband finished work yesterday. For us it is so different to last year when he had his broken wrist.

I had a little time and I decided I would make some thank you cards. I do like to say thank you for any gifts I receive. So it is good to be prepared.

These are quite tiny cards just 10.5 cm x 10.5 cm so you can get two from an A4 sheet. 

I have been saving the kitchen roll I use to mop up when I use Pixie Powders and Brushos. I had seen John Lockwood use his left over kitchen roll to make backgrounds.  From each sheet you get two as you pull the layers apart and I used Decoupage glue to glue the sheets to some white card. Once it was dry I could cut it and use it as I wanted. 

This is a little stamp from the Stampin Up set Birthday Blooms. It was stamped with black archival onto water colour card and then they were coloured with Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens. 

The die came free with an issue of  Card Making & Papercraft magazine I did trim it quite a bit to suit the design. 

This will be my last post before Christmas. 

I would just like to thank all of you who visit my blog and a special thank you to those who leave comments. I do read every one. 

I would like to wish you and your families a  very HAPPY CHRISTMAS. 🌲

I would like to enter the 2016 Anything Goes Challenge at the That's Crafty! Challenge Blog. 

Hugs Jackie

Please follow my blog with Bloglovin

Angel Christmas card

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I do hope that your preparations are going well. It really isn't long to go now until the big day. Last night we did a Sainsbury shop we had a voucher for  £10 off not bad. It was really quite busy but we got everything we wanted.

I was looking through my files and I found that I hadn't shared this card. It is just a little card that I made for someone at school.

For the background I used the Snowflake Lattice A4 embossing folder. 

This is  a pre coloured LOTV image. Their angels are just so cute. 

This is a Sue Wilson die from last year's Festive Collection. 

The recipient was very pleased with this card. I hope the rest of the week is kind to you. 

I would like to enter the challenge at Cuttlebug Mania create a Christmas project without red or green. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Please follow my blog with Bloglovin

The last Christmas cards I made this year.

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How has your weekend been? I hope all your plans are coming together for the big day. We visited both sets of parents on Saturday and on Sunday we went to Brighton with friends to see the Bootleg Beatles in concert. We love going to their concerts and they are such fun at Christmas.

Last week I made 20 Christmas cards so that I had enough to give out. This is the last eight I made. Just to say that my hands ended up looking like I was auditioning to be a Smurf.

To create the background I used a mixture of Brushos and Pixie Powders that I sprinkled over the surface of some water colour card before spritzing with water. I usually blot the paper dry with paper towel to lower the intensity of the colours. Look out for some background made with the paper towel as inspired by John Lockwood. Once everything was dry I stamped the snowflakes, that came from a cover gift from Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine, with Perfect Medium and I heat embossed them with gold embossing powder. Then I stamped the same snowflakes with Cobalt Archival ink. 

The final touch was to cut the snowflakes with the die that came with the same cover gift  and stick them to the surface. 

The sentiment stamp was in the same set. I used the Sue Wilson double pierced flags to mount the sentiment. 

I did enjoy making these cards and getting inky. It took two days for the blue to go. Not long to go now. I wonder when I will start making Christmas cards again. 

I would like to enter challenge 92 at the Love to Scrap Challenge Blog, challenge 5 at the Love to Craft Challenge Blog, challenge  141 at Crafting from the Heart , challenge 2 at the Christmas Card Challenge blog , challenge 35 at A Snowflakes Promise Challenge Blog and weeks 260 and 261 at Pixie's Snippets Playground. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Please follow my blog with Bloglovin

Goodbye Roy

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How has your week been?  There is a lot to do I am sure your agree. Yesterday  I went shopping with a list that said milk and 6 bottles of wine. That could only be at this time of year couldn't it.

Last month when we attended the funeral of our old friend we found out about another friend who had died the day before. Yesterday we went to his funeral. I made this card for the wife he left behind. Roy was very musical he played clarinet in some jazz bands and in the church worship group. That is how he and his wife met through his music. We met Roy when we were leading a small group at an Alpha course. The group turned into a nurture group and we met for about two years before the group disbanded. We did get to hear Roy play once in his band he was very good. The funeral was lovely his Jazz band played outside the church before the service and they played again at his funeral tea.

This is an 8" x 8" card. I used black on this card as I wanted it to have a musical theme and music notation is often black. I used a Visible Image stamp to create the music background. I used Perfect Medium and black, white and brown embossing powder for the heat embossing.  Once I had done the embossing I used Distress ink to colour the background. 

I used my new With Sympathy die by Sue Wilson. I wasn't expecting to use it again so soon. I teamed it with the Hannah die set also by Sue Wilson. I must admit to buying this die set simply because it has the same name as our daughter. This is the first time I have used it. I was rather taken with the hearts in the corners. I used some music backing paper from my stash behind the die. 

As we met Roy and his wife through church I put a small cross in the corner of the card. 

Here is Roy he was a lovely, talented man he will be missed. 

When we spoke to his wife at the funeral she mentioned how much she liked this card. I am going to try and meet her for a coffee sometime. We now have our own Costa in our town so we don't have to go far for a drink. 

Enjoy your weekend. We have plans I will let you know about them on Monday. 

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

Please follow my blog with Bloglovin

Twelve very quick Christmas cards.

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends,

How is your week going? I hope you are getting everything done that you want to do. We are mostly doing Christmas prep in our free time. Work for me finishes tomorrow. We have a busy weekend ahead but things should calm down after that.

I seriously misjudged how many Christmas cards I needed. When we were writing them on Sunday I realised that I needed to make a few more. Now there isn't  a lot of time left is there? So I needed to make some quickly.

I made three of each of these designs so that is twelve altogether. They are made with a Kanban pad that was a members gift from Create and Craft a while back. I was looking through the pack I noticed that some of the sentiments on pages of four  matched some of the backgrounds. I added a few die cuts and there you have it some quick cards. 

The deer family dies,from Sue Wilson's  2015 Festive Collection of dies, I thought went well with the designs just cut in white. Did anyone else get the Crafter's Companion Advent Calendar? Everyday there is a new die it is a lovely gift, I used the star from my collection of dies on one of the cards. 

The recipents seemed to like these cards. I still have a few cards to make. Next year I am going to have to be more careful about calculating how many cards I need. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Please follow my blog with Bloglovin

MDF Bauble

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How is your week going? I am into the last week at school before the Christmas holiday. There is a lot to remember to do. All our cards are posted but I did find that I didn't have enough cards for the people at work this is because the team I am in has expanded. So I have been frantically making some quick cards. I can't quite bring myself to buy some from a shop.

When we went to the Portsmouth Craft show, back in October,  I was rather taken by some MDF baubles that came with lights. I bought two but I have only decorated one so far.

The bauble has four layers and I painted each layer separatley with arylic paint.  The nice thing about the layers is that they give dimension and you can change the order and the way round they are. 

To add some interest I put glue over the snowflakes and added some clear glitter. 

I added a bow and some holly to the bottom of the bauble. 

Here you can see the lights. 

Here are the lights in the dark. This bauble is now hanging up in our dining room and it looks very nice there too. 

I would like to enter challenge 35 at A Snowflakes Promise Challenge blog. 

Enjoy the rest of the week

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Please follow my blog with Bloglovin

Owls for Christmas

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope that you are having a great weekend. We have spent our time catching up on lots of Christmas jobs like sorting cards and presents. Today will be more of the same.

On to the card. I was asked by someone to make her some Christmas cards with owls on them. This an updated version of a card I made last year but I couldn't find it on my blog so I am sharing this version.

I used two embossing folders in the background layers. The dark brown layer was embossed with my new wood grain embossing folder. I did cut the aperture with a circle die before I embossed the card. 

The owls were stamped with an old Creative Expressions stamp that I got when I was on the Sam Poole Design Team. This time I stamped them with black archival onto water colour card and then coloured them with my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens. I do love those pens. These owls are very easy to cut out. 

You can just see the holly and the branches that I cut with some older festive dies designed by Sue Wilson. 

The sentiment was cut with a Signature die. 

I might have made this design before but I always make changes every time I make a design. This time I had a wood grain embossing folder. The lady I made the cards for loved them. I did make one of these for my in-laws as it has lots of texture. 

I would like to enter challenge 218 at the Glitter'n'Sparkle Challenge Blog and Challenge 39 at the Not Just Cards Challenge Blog. 

Enjoy the rest of the week.  

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Please follow my blog with Bloglovin

Alphabet Challenge Blog - Letter U - Use Something Red

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

Friday is here! The weekend has nearly started. Our plan is to get all the Christmas cards and presents sorted. The following weekend we are really busy and so it has to be this weekend.

The last challenge of the Alphabet Challenge Blog this year starts today the new letter is U and the theme is Use Something Red.

When I went to a  Stampin Up charity craft event, back in October, I was given the Cookie-Cutter Christmas stamp set in the goodie bag. I did purchase the matching punch. The papers I used are from Stampin Up too. 

From the set I stamped the Gingbread man onto kraft card. I stamped the bow onto white paper. Both can be cut out with the punch.  You can make the cookies male or female depending on where you place the bow. 

I cut the Happy Christmas die from Creative Expressions in gold. I do like that I don't have worry about the dot on the i with this die. 

I did enjoy using this stamp set with the matching punch. I do hope they create some other stamp sets that can be used with the punch. 

I would like to enter challenge 228 at the Brown Sugar Challenge Blog and the Christmas Time challenge at the Creative Corner Challenge Blog. 

Enjoy your day. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Please follow my blog with Bloglovin

Moving Along with the Times (MAWTT) - Christmas Scene

Hi My Crafty Blogs Friends

How is your week going? I had a lovely catch up with friends yesterday and I got to purchase some crafty goodies. The preparations for Christmas are certainly steaming ahead.

You might have noticed from my sidebar that I have joined the MAWTT challenge blog Design Team. I responded to a request on Facebook and I was thrilled when they accepted my application.  I am in team B and this is my first post for them. The new challenge starts today and the theme is Christmas Scenes.

I have been very guilty this year of buying lots of lovely dies and not getting round to using them. I used three of those dies on this card. All the dies in question were designed by Sue Wilson for Creative Expression.  I started by cutting the Starry Night Sky die in black. I used a silver mat behind it to show off the stars and the moon. 

In the center of the Christmas Scene Mini background is a tiny Santa on his slay with two reindeer. They were just the right size for my card I just cut more reindeer and glued them in place. 

I cut both of the dies in the Christmas Cottage Scene set in white and  backed them with gold mirri card to look like lights. You can just see the two deer. 

The Merry Christmas was cut with a Signature die. 

Thank you for stopping by enjoy the rest of the week.

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

Please follow my blog with Bloglovin