Cute Penguin Christmas card

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

I hope you are all well. My husband has had a nasty cough and on Monday he went to the doctors and was given antibiotics. It was recommended that he go to the walk in X-ray department at our local hospital for a chest X-ray. That is what we did yesterday. Today he is working from home. The cough at last seems to be responding to the antibiotics.

It is hard to craft when there is someone poorly in the house. Yesterday I actually  felt like making a simple card. In my stash I had spotted a sheet of foil edged  strips of patterned papers and I wanted to try the snippets technique with them,.

This is what I made. The sheet was an old Kanban one. I found a silver glitter die cut square in my scraps pile. That made one of the mats and I cut a dark blue outer mat. I then cut a piece of card to fit inside the piercing on the silver mat. This was then covered with strips of paper from the sheet. 

I looked back through my stash and found a sheet of cute images this is also an old Kanban sheet. If you look carefully the pattern round the image matches the pattern on some of the strips. The sentiment I used I found in my stash. 

I entered a giveaway competition on Facebook I think back before Christmas. I was the chosen winner and my prize arrived yesterday. There are 23 stamps all designed by Sharon Callis for Personal Impressions. The stamps are all Christmas themed and they are lovely. I am looking forward to using them. 

I did make three other cards with the strips once I had got going it was fun to do. I am hoping to get a bit of crafting done this afternoon. I do need to stay out of the way while my hubby is working. 

Enjoy the rest of the week 

I would like to enter the following Challenges:

The January Challenge at Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge

Challenge 420 at Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge 

Challenge 6 at the Merry Little Christmas Challenge blog

Challenge 22 at the 2 Crafty Critter Crazies Challenge blog

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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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

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Christmas cards numbers 35 - 40

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

Just a quick post from me today. I am now working towards us going on holiday and fitting a bit of crafting in as well. I had a lovely time yesterday with my friend at Gun Wharf Quays in Portsmouth. We did lots of shopping and we had a very civilised lunch in Loch Fyne.

After putting on two lots of washing. I decided to make some Christmas cards. I am much more familiar with the bits in my Christmas stash now and I remembered a box of Kanban toppers. I had a look in the box and found this sheet of toppers to make 6 cards.

I made some 5" x 5" card blanks and added an insert. I went through my scraps to find bits of black and gold card I could use for the mats. For the backing paper I used  two 12" x 12" matching sheets. The sentiments came from  another sheet in my stash, 

Here are all six cards together. 

Here is the detail on one of the toppers. 

This came from a sheet of sentiments. 

I am hoping to have made 50 Christmas cards before I go on holiday. If I have another look in the box I am sure there will be things I can use. I do like to set myself challenges. 

Enjoy the rest of the day. 

Happy Crafting. 

Hugs Jackie

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Alphabet Challenge Blog the letter C for Cats

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you are having a good day. We are just about to set off to the hospital for my husband to have some tests, this is a leftover from when he broke his wrist last year. After we are going to head off to Gun Wharf Quays in Portsmouth in the hope of seeing the Batman V Superman film and having a nice meal somewhere.

The Alphabet Challenge starts on a new letter today and the letter is C for Cats.

I had a look through my stash and I found a sheet of Kanban cat toppers. I thought the image was so pretty that I wanted to use it. There was a patchwork theme on the sheet as well and I used this as inspiration for the background of my card. 

Isn't this a cute cat. I used a lacy circle die to make the mat for the image and I backed it with gold to match the gold on the image.

The sentiment came from the same sheet.

To create the background I used a hexagon die to cut many hexagons from different patterned papers. Once I had stuck the hexagons to a backing sheet to create a patchwork on the paper I covered the whole thing with a double sided sticky sheet and poured microbeads on it. It does create a lovely subtle background with texture.

I am not sure who to send this card to. It needs to be someone who likes cats. I know a lot of dog lovers but no cat lovers. There must be someone out there who would love a card like this. 

Enjoy the rest of the day. I will be back later. 

Happy Crafting.

Hugs Jackie

Scenic Happy Birthday

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How has your week been so far? I was on a school trip yesterday to Marwell Zoo. It was a good trip we walked so far the weather was good and lots of the animals were out. I was exhausted yesterday evening, school trips do that to me, I didn't get much done.

I am striving to get well ahead with the cards I need to make. I have no idea when my daughter is going to want her Save the Date cards made and I want to be ready when she tells me what she wants. I must say she and her fiancé are looking at some very exciting wedding venues including London Zoo. I have started a page at the top of my blog to keep track of all the bits that I make towards the wedding I thought it would make a kind of diary. Anyway back to the point I made a birthday card for my dad today even though his birthday isn't until May. I have to admit that it was rather quick make.

I have had this Kanban image in my stash for a while and I decided it would make a great card for my dad. He likes doing puzzles and this topper looks like one of the scenes on the jigsaws he does.  Black and gold seemed like the obvious choice for the mats but I wanted a green and brown backing paper. There wasn't one in my stash so I decide to make one with two small leaf stamps, some Perfect Medium, two shades of embossing powder and three different shades of green Distress Ink. In about 5 minutes I had the background I wanted. The sentiment came from the Kanban sheet. 

 

I only had my phone to take photos at the zoo yesterday we did get very close to the giraffes they were all in their house keeping out of the wind. 

I am sure that my dad will like this card he never really says much. 

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Unicorn Challenge Blog - Get Your Glad Rags On!

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends,

How is the return to work going? I have been back for one training day and now a proper day of work. We enjoyed the last day of the holiday we went down to Gun Wharf Quays (Portsmouth) and saw the  Hunger Games Mockingjay Part two and then we had a lovely meal at a Loch Fyne restaurant. When we headed home there had been flooding on the railway line and we couldn't get all the way back so we got a ride in a taxi part of the way home. It made a rather exciting day out.

Today sees the start of a new challenge on the Unicorn Challenge blog and the theme is "Get Your Glad Rags On!" this means Glamourous Girls, Smartly Dressed Boys or Clothes items. I remembered that I had some rather nice Kanban images in my stash just right for this challenge.

I think she is a very glamorous lady. The image and the backing papers are Kanban I added gold and black card as well as feathers cut with a Tattered Lace die and some flat back pearls. The sentiment was made with a Tattered Lace die as well. 

I am planning on giving this card to one of my girl friends for their birthday. 

There is also a Design Team Call for our happy challenge blog so if you would like to join us now is a good time. 

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

Unexpected 50th Birthday Card

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

Happy Thursday. I am back again today this time with a card I wasn't expecting to make. It is someone at works special birthday today but the card was wanted for yesterday (that is when we have our group meeting) and I was asked on Tuesday if I had a card. Luckily I was up to date with Design Team makes so I found the time to make this.

I had been going to use a card from my extensive stash but then I remembered a sheet of images of cyclists. The recipient is a keen cyclist and all the presents were themed around this hobby so I just had to make a card using the images. 

I think the sheet is one from Kanban. The images set the tone of the card and influenced my colour choices. The background seemed empty once I had placed the elements so I added some die cuts to give some added texture. 

I was there when the card was opened and the recipient was thrilled she liked her presents too. It was nice to make her a special card. 

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

Alphabet Challenge Blog - Q for Quick and Simple

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

It is Friday the weekend is nearly here. I finish work at lunchtime so that is when my weekend starts. I do hope that you have a wonderful day full of craftiness or other treats.

Today sees the start of a new challenge on the Alphabet Challenge blog and this time the letter is Q which stands for Quick and Simple. I think this makes it this a brilliant challenge to join in with.

I went through my stash and I found two Kanban sheets of gilded Christmas tree images one in silver and one in gold. I also found some pattered paper to match.

I folded a piece of A4 paper in half to make an A5 card. I made a gold mat and then cut the patterned paper to size. The border across came on the sheet and I put it on a gold mat. The Christmas tree and the sentiment were on the sheet the tree was mounted  with foam tape. I added gold glue dots to the corners. This was such a quick make I made a whole set I think this was all done in just over an hour. That is quick for me. 

The tags were super easy. I cut two of the the Sue Wilson Pierced Tags and I put a small Christmas tree from the sheets on each. This is also a quick blog post to keep in with the theme.

I hope that you have a wonderful weekend. 

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

Tiger, Tiger

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How has your week been so far? I have been busy with this and that but I have been a bit unfocused. We did have a meeting with one of the happy couples I am making the invites for. This means these should be able to finish these soon.

I wanted to make something today and I took a look at the Cardz 4 Guyz blog and they have a new challenge and this one is World Wildlife. I remembered some Kanban  wildlife stamps that I bought a few weeks ago so I thought I would have a go.  I would also like to enter Pixie's Snippets Playground week 177  as I used lots of snippets to make this card.

I chose to use the cute little tiger stamp. The background I had made with Distress Ink on my Gelli Plate  I used a mask to get the pattern.

I stamped the tiger with Sepia Archival ink and heat embossed it with a clear powder. Then the tiger was coloured with my Promarkers.  I used my Spellbinders matting dies to cut out the tiger and the mats.

I used the Happy Birthday stamp again I do like how it works with the dies. 

The other patterned papers were from my snippets box. Did you spot that I used buttons again? Maybe I am getting better.

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

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

Patchwork Butterflies

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you are having a good week, I can't believe that we are half way through already.

I wanted to share a little card that I made for  challenge # 25 on the The Butterfly Challenge blog H is for Hexagon.  I used so many snippets I would like to join with the Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 166. There is an Anything Goes Challenge on the Scribble and Scrap Blog that I would like to join in too. That's a lot of challenges for me.

I really enjoyed making this card. I used a Sizzix  hexagon die to cut the papers to make the background I could cut four sheets of paper at the same time. It was good to be able to use some of the snippets in my stash and you don't need much of each colour. I cut a piece of coconut white card and I stuck the hexagons to this I wanted some of the white to still show. 

The main image is from a Kanban topper set the butterfly is beautiful it started life as a circle but that was easily changed. I matted it to make it show up and I stuck it to the card with mounting foam.

The sentiment and small butterflies are from a set of stamps by Phill Martin I think the set is called Butterfly Meadow. I do find the little butterflies very useful.

I am very pleased with how this card turned out. I do like creating backgrounds like this. 

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

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie