Christmas in the Forest

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

How is your week going? I seem to be getting busier and that is a good thing. My back has improved immensely and that has  given me a lot more energy.

I was so lucky to be able to go to Crafting at Ally Pally again last weekend. I really do enjoy that show. It was a bit quieter on the Saturday probably because of the bomb on the tube the day before. I was quite restrained in my spending and I only bought one die but I wanted to try it out. I did get some other things as well.

 I had this idea for a winter scene. I have been using my Tonic Guillotine for cutting my mats and layers I have been finding a lot easier than my rotary cutter. The moon was just cut from the black with a circle die to reveal the layer below. The stars came from the Star Spray die set from Creative Expressions. Really I wanted to cut the stars from the black like the moon but I couldn't find my star dies. 

This is the die I bought the Santa's sleigh from the Festive collection of dies designed by Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions. 

I used the Winter Trees die set and the Deer Family die set also from Creative Expressions. The snow was made with white glitter card. 

When you come out of Ally Pally there is a terrace round the building and from there you get the most amazing views of London. 

In this one you can make out the towers on the O2.

I am planing to have another play with the new die I have some other ideas to try.  So far I have made 54 Christmas cards. I am really not sure how many I need this year now I am not working. 

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

I would like to enter challenge 74 at the Scrapy Land Challenge blog, challenge 35 at the Merry Christmas Challenge blog and challenge 44 at the Snowflakes Promoise Challenge blog

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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LOTV Sunflower Wedding and my pictures from Ally Pally

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How has your week been going. I went back to school on Monday and I was on a trip,  this involved standing in the rain for an hour and not managing to get warm all day. The children we took had a lovely time and that is the main thing. If only we had gone today the weather is so much nicer and more of the activities could have been done outside.

We have another family wedding in July this time I am not involved with making anything only our card and a small gift. At Ally Pally on Sunday I got some grey ink, I couldn't get Watering Can but I did get London Fog,  I used it to stamp the sunflowers for the background. They were heat embossed with a clear powder. I chose three shades of Distress ink and inked all over the background. I found the pretty lace in my stash. When I am at Craft shows I often buy bags of off cut  lace and ribbon this gives me the chance to try things out before I commit to buy lots of something. 

The image, which came from the LOTV Occassion 3 stamp set,  was stamped onto watercolour paper with black Archival ink.  I coloured it with my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens and I moved the colour around with a paint brush and some water. I love colouring images this way. 

Here you can see a bit more detail of the background using the grey ink made it more subtle. 

 Here are some of the pictures we took on Sunday when we were at Ally Pally I had such a nice time and everyone was so nice.  

Leonie Pujol 

Julia Watts 

Wendy the Spanish Crafter (she was helping on the Creative Expressions stand)

John Lockwood he gave me back my cards that he had borrowed for some of his Hochanda shows. 

In the packet he popped a lovely stamp set. I will be using that soon. 

Phill Martin

Charlie Hopkins from Hochanda

Sue Wilson

While we were there we attended one of the shows going out live on Hochanda it was the last show of the day. You can just see me poking my head round the presenters waving goodbye. But between them you can see my husband looking rather grumpy. 

This is my stash. Not all of it for me and some of it was free when you sat down to watch the shows being filmed. We did buy two more storage units for my craft bits so we spent loads. 

You might have noticed that there is no sentiment on this card. The finished card will have one but I chose to use a die that I was sent from Tattered Lace recently  and that won't be on sale until the weekend. 

I would like to enter this week's challenge at Through the Craft Room Door.

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

Happy Crafting. 

Hugs Jackie

Christmas Winter Scene using dies designed by Sue Wilson.

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. The weather down here in the south has been very good with lots of sunshine. I had a brilliant time at Ally Pally. I met so many people, saw so many wonderful things and spent too much money. We finished the day off with a lovely meal in China Town on our way back. Today we are having a quiet day to catch up with some jobs at home.

I have been a bit naughty recently and I have bought quite a few of the new release of Sue Wilson's dies. Last Friday I had my first proper play with them.

I was so pleased with how this came out. I have seen cards like and wanted to have a go myself. From Sue's Noble Collection I used the Adorned Rectangle set to cut a frame. Then I cut the card blank and the mats to suit the frame. For the night scene I cut a piece of white card bigger than the aperture and  a circle from a post-it note to make a mask for the moon, Then with a brush I inked the background with two shades of blue Distress in, Before removing the mask for the moon I stamped some stars with Perfect Medium and heat embossed them with silver powder. I made the snowy hills by tearing some white paper. 

I cut two members of the deer family and I put some black card behind them to hide the filigree details. I also cut three trees from the Winter Trees collection.  

The sentiment was cut with a Signature die. I think if you changed the sentiment you could make a winter birthday card in this design. 

Below are some of my pictures from Ally Pally yesterday you will recognise lots of the people. I have created an album with other photos on Facebook. 

This is Helen and Mark from Visible Image I do love their stamps. Unfortunately I got there too late to do their make and take sessions with Kim Robertson.  

This is my good friend John Lockwood on the Creative Expressions stand. 

Here I am with Pam Smith trying out Cloud Ink. They are amazing and I think I am going to have to buy some they blend so easily. 

With Phill Martin on the Creative Expressions stand.

The lady herself Sue Wilson she is so lovely she has time for everyone. 

On our way back we went to China Town and had a Chinese meal. Then we walked back to Waterloo station the views over the river were stunning. It was a lovely end to a lovely day. I am looking forward to going back in April. 

Just a quick reminder of the card that I started the post with. I hope that you have a good day today and a great week ahead. 

I would like to join in with Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 195 , challenge 5 at A Snowflake's Promise and challenge 103 at Classy Cards and Such. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Butterflies, Music and pictures from Ally Pally

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I had just the best weekend. We went to Ally Pally on Saturday  and I met some lovely people and I bought lots of crafty stash. Then on Sunday we went to Beatles Day at the White Rock Theatre in Hastings with two friends. Altogether it was a stella weekend. There was not much time to craft though. I am still on Easter holidays which is fab. I might get a bit of time to catch up. We are away again next weekend this time in Devon.

I made this card to enter the Butterfly Challenge #28 Butterflies and Music Notes. I would like to enter it for Pixie's Snippets Playground - 172 I used a few snippets to make this including the page of an old music book.

I made the background first using  Visible Image butterfly stamps. I stamped the large and the small butterfly with Walnut Stain and Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink they were then heat embossed with a clear powder. I inked over the page with Old Paper Distress ink and inked the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. 

I cut a square from a page of an old music book and I stamped the large butterfly with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and heat embossed it with clear powder.

I cut the Tattered Lace Music die from some snippets of  white paper and added them to the design.

Here are some of my photos from Saturday at Ally Pally.  It is an amazing building, where they hold the Big Stamping and Scrapbooking show twice a year.

This is Pam Smith she is on the Creative Expressions Design Team. I got to know her when we were on Sam Poole's Design Team together. 

 Mark and Helen from Visible Image they make wonderful stamps. Mark told me that he sits in the evening cutting out the stamps by hand, that is dedication.

John Lockwood he is also on the Creative Expressions Design Team. He was so nice to me, I did bring him jelly babies, he gave me some dazzlers.

 Jenny Redfern she is a freelance demonstrator and she was on the Samuel Taylors stand. I got to know her through Facebook. It is so nice when you meet Facebook friends in real life. 

 Julia Watts and Phill Martin both on the Creative Expressions Design Team. I got to speak to Sue Wilson as well, mostly about cruises, but I didn't get a photo. 

Finally this is Florence she recognized me from Do-crafts site it was lovely to put a face to a name.

My stash from the show I can't wait to have a play.

Just a quick reminder of the card I made.

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

A get well card and my stash from Ally Pally.

This is a  quick card to send to someone who has just has an operation. I made the frame by scoring with my Hougie board. The lattice die and the birdcage are Spellbinders and the bird and leaves  a  Marianne die. The flowers were punched and shaped. The  backing paper I had in my stash. Finally the sentiment was one from a set designed by Sam Poole. I promised to make some cards that could be sold at a Macmillan garden party I might use this design.

This is what I bought at Ally Pally on Saturday. I had a brilliant time. I saw demos by Sam Poole, Phill Martin (I helped him by peeling the backing paper off his double sided tape) and Julia Watts. I spoke to Sue Wilson she was making lots of bows. I'm kicking myself because I didn't take any photos they would have been fun to put on here.

Thank you for looking at my blog.