Poppy themed Mother's Day Card

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How is your week going? We are plodding along. Nothing much seems to change from week to week. I am sure it is the same for everyone. 

Here is the Mother's Day card. I made for my mother-in-law. She loves poppies. 

I started another card for my Mother-in-law but I didn't like it so I started again. I know she loves poppies so I got out my Creative Expressions' dies. I made all the mats and layers with the Stitched Lattice Frame die set. 

This is a Signature die it is my go to for Mother's Day. I cut it twice once in Gold and once in black for a shadow. 

These are the Exquisite Poppy dies and the Laurel Leaves dies both from Creative Expressions.  

I know my Mother-in-law will like this card. It is such a shame that we can't see them. It is much better for them to be safe. 

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Challenge 509 at the Fab 'n' Funky Challenge blog

Challenge 62 at the Unicorn Challenge blog

The Week beginning 2nd Feb at the Through the Craft Room Door (TTCRD) Challenge blog

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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100th Birthday Card for a very Special Gentleman

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How are things for you? I have been so inspired by seeing Captain Tom Moore walking to raise money for the NHS. He has really hit a cord with the whole world. What a wonderful amount of money to pass on to the NHS. There was an appeal for birthday cards for Captain Moore's 100th Birthday on 30th April. I did feel that making a card would be one small thing for me to do to show my appreciation.

I knew I had some patriotic papers in my stash and it didn't take long to find them. 

I think this is the first 100th Birthday card I have ever made. It really is something special. The number dies are X-cut dies. The Happy Birthday is a Creative Expressions die. 

I used the Exquisite Poppy dies, from Creative Expressions, to make a poppy swag at the bottom of the card. 

It was a pleasure to make this card for such a special man. 

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Challenge 184 at the Creative Fingers Challenge blog

Challenge 188 at the Seize the Birthday Challenge blog (because Captain Tom is a Hero)

The April Challenge at Craftyhazelnuts patterned paper challenge

I hope you are safe and well. 

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

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Poppies on a Birthday Card

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How is your week going?  This week most of my time is taken up with invigilating at our local secondary school. That means there isn't a lot of time to craft but I have managed to grab a bit of time so far. The weather has been amazing hasn't it. I have quite enjoyed walking to work.

Yesterday I managed to finish this card. When I was a the Newbury Craft show I bought a pack of Izink dye ink pads and some daubers for colouring poppies. My idea was to try them with my Creative Expressions Exquisite Poppy dies to see if they worked.

I found a doily in my stash. There is some patterned paper in the background. The Happy Birthday was cut from a pad. 

When I had a play day with my crafty friends last week I took along the poppy dies and the ink pads. This is the result. I was rather pleased and I couldn't resist making the poppies into a card. I added Laurel leave cut with Creative Expressions dies. 

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

I would like to enter the following challenges:

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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Unicorn Challenge Blog - Special Occasions

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

We had a great day yesterday. Mottisfont is a lovely place to go. They often have art exhibitions in the house and the grounds are gorgeous. In June the roses there are glorious we will be going back for a visit then now we are members. We did a Medieval tour and that was very interesting. The rain kept off too which was brilliant.

Well the first Tuesday of the month sees the start of a new challenge on the Unicorn Challenge blog and this time our theme is Special Occasions.

I was asked by my cousin to make her mum and dad (my aunt and uncle) a card for her to give them for their 65th Wedding Anniversary. I think that makes it  a very special occasion.

The words were generated on the computer. I used my Spellbinder corner dies over some patterned paper. 

I made the flowers with the Exquisite Poppies dies and the foliage with the Olive branch dies. 

I know my cousin liked this card as she sent me a lovely thank you letter. 

I would like to enter the 2nd May Challenge on the Through the Craft Room Door Challenge blog.  and the Make it Square Challenge at the Come and Get It  Challenge blog. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Happy Birthday with a Beautiful Bird

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

The weekend is here. I hope you have something nice planned. We are meeting our daughter for veil shopping and she wants to get some other things for the wedding  as well. She is staying over night so she will be here for Mother's Day which is nice.

I have been making birthday cards again. This one was made from the left over bits from a larger card I made. As all the papers and card were out  this card didn't take long to put together.

I chose the image first and then I found papers and a ribbon in my stash that would suit. 

This has to be my favourite Happy Birthday die it is the one designed by Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions. I cut it once in green and once in black so I could create a shadow. I think this helps the sentiment to show against the background. 

This is another Pollyanna Pickering image from a Creative World of Crafts pad that I have. I do love 

her images. 

Our Magnolia tree is looking amazing this year. I thought I would share a couple of photos with you. The blooms aren't  usually this pink.

Have a great weekend. I will let you know how the shopping goes. 

I would like to enter challenge 54 at the Crafty Friends Challenge blog. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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A beautiful Owl by Pollyanna Pickering

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How is your week going? We have got to hump day half way to the weekend.

Here is a little story: before Christmas I ordered a few bits from Create and Craft. Part of the order arrived well before Christmas but the second part didn't arrive. I had a look at the website and I kept meaning to do something about it but I didn't quite manage to get round to it. Well out of the blue on Monday the package was delivered. It did look like it had been around a bit but the contents were fine. I had ordered some toppers and inserts with images by Pollyanna Pickering from the Creative World of Crafts. So yesterday I had a bit of a play.

I must admit to being rather fond of the image of this owl. The first time I saw it was as a jigsaw. With the mats and layers I tried to reflect the colours in the image. 

I used my favourite Happy Birthday die designed by Sue Wilson. 

This is a beautiful image it was lovely to do as a puzzle. I changed my original design so I could keep Pollyanna's signature visible on the image. 

I made some poppies with the Exquisite Poppy dies and Olive Branch die both designed by Sue Wilson. I do like poppies on cards. 

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

I would like to enter challenge 312 at Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge blog and challenge 333 at Crafty Creations Challenge blog. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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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

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Good Bye to an Old Friend

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I do hope that you have had a better week than me. I have been ill and yesterday we attended a funeral. We said goodbye to an old friend. He had been ill for a while. It was a lovely serene service, followed by a burial. We were so lucky that it wasn't raining.

This is the card I made to send to his wife when we first heard the news of his passing. We got to know them both through church so I wanted the card to have a cross on it.

This is an 8" x 8" card the paper for the background was in my stash. 

This is our friend in his back garden enjoying the sun. His hair went white overnight because of some treatment he was having. He was a very wise, gentle man and very good to talk to. He and my husband used to have great debates. 

The cross was cut with a Spellbinders die this is my favourite go to die from the set I have used it quite often. 

When I made my last sympathy card I felt the need for a With Sympathy sentiment die. I treated myself to the one designed by Sue Wilson. I cut it in brown and gold so I could create a shadow. 

The Exquisite Poppy dies were a very good investment. I love the flowers they make and and changing the colour adds to the variety.  

I hope that you have a wonderful weekend. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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LOTV Wedding Card

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope that you have had a wonderful weekend and are now fighting fit for the week ahead. We visited our daughter and did lots of jobs in the house. When her fiance got home we went out for a nice meal. Then on Sunday we saw our friend who lost his wife recently we had another very nice meal out. So not much cooking for me this weekend.

A friend asked me to make a wedding card for her. The bride and groom wanted money as a gift so she thought a nice card would be a good idea I tried hard not to let her down.

For the background I used a Spellbinder's corner die. I cut four and placed them in the corners over a patterned paper. 

This is a Crafter's Companion die. I cut it twice so I could create a shadow. 

The image came from the LOTV Occasions Set 3. This is such a useful set. I stamped with black archival onto water colour card and then coloured with my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens. I coloured the image first and my colouring suggested the colours for the rest of the card. Blues was the suggestion by my friend but it became more teal. To frame the image I used some dies from the Innsbruck set from the Austrian Collection by Sue Wilson. 

I used the Sue Wilson Esquiste Poppy die set to create the flowers and the Olive branch die set to make the foliage. 

My friend was very pleased with this card. I am very pleased that she like it. 

I would like to enter Week 254 at Pixie's Snippets Playground and challenge 337 at Craft Your Passion Challenges. 

Have a great week. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Poppy Sympathy Card

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How is your week going? We visited our daughter and her fiance in their new house yesterday. We were there to help build furniture of the Scandinavian variety. The house looks so much nicer now that the carpets are in place. They have done a good job of getting organised. I hope they are going to be very happy in their new home.

Last week we heard that the husband of someone we knew from our old church had died. He was 92 and his health had been failing for a while. My husband was keen for us to send a card.

I used the Sue Wilson Stitched Lattice Frames die set to create the background. Behind the lattice I placed some music paper. The lady we were sending the card to is very musial. 

The sentiment was cut with some Emerald dies. The frame was cut with dies from the Oslo die set. 

The poppies were made with the Exquisite Poppies die set. I do love these poppies. 

We had a phone call from the lady to tell us how much she liked this card. I am so pleased that she did. 

Enjoy your weekend. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Alphabet Challenge Blog - K - for Kindness

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

Happy Friday! I hope you have had a good week. I have been making the most of my time off. I have been able to do  a bit of crafty experimenting. Today I am hoping to get a long way with the Save the Date cards for our daughter and her fiance. They are visiting this evening as we will be looking after their rabbits for them so they can go away for a few days.

The new challenge starts on the Alphabet Challenge blog the letter is K and the theme is Kindness. I must admit this theme was chosen by me and I will be choosing the top three. I was thinking of Sympathy cards, Get Well cards or Thinking of You cards. One of the design team made a Thank You card - I didn't think of that but it does fit nicely with the theme.

I started by creating the background with the Heart Lattice Embossing Folder. I used white card and once embossed I inked over it to bring out the detail of the embossing. The gold lattice was made with a Spellbinders die and the Oval frame was made with the Innsbruck die set from the Austrian collection by Sue Wilson. 

I used a Thinking of you die set and the Pierced Flag dies by Sue Wilson  to create the sentiment. 

I do love the Sue Wilson poppy dies they make such beautiful flowers. The foliage was made with the Olive Branch die set.  

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. My husband has next week as leave we have lots of plans I doubt that we will get everything done. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie