John Next Door - Deco Butterflies Day 1

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How has your week been? We have been okay. One sad thing is that our coffee machine has had to go back to be repaired. It is strange being without it. We bought if right at the beginning of lockdown and there isn't a day when it hasn't been used. I am missing my coffee. Oh well there are obviously bigger problems. Hopefully we will get it back soon. 

As you know I am one of John Next Door's Angels. I always wanted to be an Angel. On Saturday there is a release of the the Deco Butterfly dies. Here are two of my makes that feature the larger butterfly set. 

The new dies are the big butterfly and the Dream. I used lots of John Next Door older dies to make this card. The background behind the lattice is inky kitchen roll stuck onto card. 

Isn't that butterfly magnificent. I did a little paper piecing you really could do a lot more.  

I used the Tatty Daisy die for the flower the centres were made with the Cornflower die set. I did ink the middle of the daisies before adding the stamen die cuts and a pearl. 

I do love these sentiments. This one was cut twice to give a drop shadow. 

I don't make many things like this but the butterflies look lovely on a wall plaque. I made the background myself with inks and then I stamped over the top of the ink when it was dry. 

Those butterflies are glorious. 

Here is one last look at the card. I will be back tomorrow with some more makes. If you are on Facebook there is a group called Crafting with John Next Door and Crafts-Too. It is a private group so you have to ask to join. All the makes from John and the other Angels will be there. All the Facebook lives happen there as well. Click HERE to visit the page. 

Have a good weekend. 

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

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Floral Tag

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How was your week? We finished not one but two jigsaw puzzles. I will have to order some more. Also I  was asked to make a cake topper. This was a first for me. When the card and the cake topper have been given to the recipient I will show you. 

Well I really raided the scrap pile for this make absolutely everything was made from scraps. I treated myself to the John Next Door Luggage tags die set. This is what I have used here. 

I used a selection of John Next door dies including: the Star Flower leaves, Small Butterflies and Small Flower die sets. The lattice is also one of his dies but I can't remember what that set was called. I used some Cosmic Shimmer Pearl PVA glue in the centre of the flowers. 

I am pleased with the Luggage Tag die set. I think I will be using it a lot. It comes with some handy corners that might be good with Parchment Craft. 

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge 395

 I hope you have a good weekend and stay safe. 

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

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Poinsettia decorated Christmas Box

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How was your weekend? On Saturday we visited my parents and significantly managed to get them to agree to have a live in carer. I just have to get that sorted now. We followed this by meeting up, for a Christmas meal, with our daughter, son-in-law and his parents. The venue was the Heron on the Lake in Fleet and they do a very good festive meal. On Sunday we caught up on lots of Christmas jobs. I have felt like I have been chasing my tail since we came back from holiday.

My mother-in-law loves good quality dark chocolate (much like me). We usually buy her several bars of chocolate and I make a box for them. She uses the boxes I make for many different things.

I do like making boxes. Using a scoring board makes this very easy. Before I make the box up I cut the lattice into the card stock and stick some acetate behind. 

The Poinsettias were made with dies from the John Next Door range. I added a ribbon to make the box more festive. 

I know my mother-in-law will love this box. I wonder what she will use it for afterwards. 

We are doing something very exciting tomorrow. With friends we  are going  to see Michael Bublé

at the O2 in London. Our travel plans have been affected by the strikes but that is all sorted now. I will let you know how we get on. 

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Challenge 247 at the Crafty Cardmakers Challenge Blog

Challenge 73 at the International Art & Soul Challenge blog

Have a great week

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Crafts Galore Encore Challenge #64 Anything Goes.

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

I hope you are having a good weekend. Now I don't usually post on a Sunday but as it is the first of the month the new challenge starts at the Crafts Galore Encore Challenge blog. The theme is Anything Goes and the sponsor is Vera Lane Studio.

I made the backing paper myself with ink on shiny paper. The lattice die is from Creative Expressions and the clouds and grass are Crafter's Companion dies. 

If you like this style of images click on the logo and you will be taken to the store. 

This rather cute kitty can be found in Farm Animals Set 2 which is available HERE. I printed the cat twice (flipping one) onto Neenah card stock and coloured them with Promarkers. Then they were fussy cut so that they could be added to the background. 

The animal noises come with the set. 

I know someone who has just taken in two rescue cats. I think she might like this card. 

I would like to enter the following Challenges:

Challenge 122 at the Love to Scrap Challenge Blog

Challenge 27 at the 2 Crafty Critter Crazies Challenge blog

Challenge 93 at the A Bit More Time to Craft Challenge blog

Challenge 27 at the Crafty Animals Challenge blog

Challenge 6 at A Perfect Time to Craft Open Challenge

Challenge 5 at the Love to Craft Challenge blog

Happy crafting 

Hugs Jackie

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Floral Congratulations Card

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How is your week going? Ours is going to get a whole lot better tomorrow we are off to Sorrento in Italy. We are hoping to visit Vesuvius and Pompeii.  It will be so good to be away for a short time and not at the other end of the constant phone calls. The care package for my parents  is in place and seems to be working. This seems like a good time to go.

I found I had a free afternoon this week so I decided to make a card. It took a while to come up with an idea. Here is what I made.

I think I might have need of a congratulations card soon so I thought I would make a pretty one. In the background I used the lattice die from the Sandwich Box set by John Next Door.  

The flowers were cut with the Gerbera die set from John Next Door. I do love how you can cut so many flowers at the same time. I only used the smaller flowers on this card I still have the larger flowers to use on another project. The leaves were cut with the Star Flower leaves I wanted something more delicate than the Gerbera leaves. 

This is a Tattered lace die one that I got when I was on their design team. It has been the die I have used the most of all of the ones I was sent. 

There is it just waiting to be sent to someone. I will catch up with everything and everyone when I get back. 

Happy Crafting

I would like to enter the following challenges: 

Challenge 418 at the 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge blog

Challenge 373 at the Crafty Creations Challenge blog

Challenge 173 at the Crafty Girls Corner Challenge blog

Challenge 395 at Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge blog

Challenge 51 at the Crafty Addicts Challenge blog

Challenge 151 at the Creative Moments Challenge blog

Hugs Jackie

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My favourite Pollyanna Pickering image of a Snowy Owl

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How was your weekend? You will be pleased to know that we signed up for one cow when we saw our friends on Friday. I might be able to post pictures of her  from time to time. I want to call her Rosie but my husband  isn't so sure. The weekend was a mix of shopping and gardening. Plus the amazing electrical storm we had Saturday night.

Last week was Pollyanna Pickering's funeral. It is so sad that she has gone. On that day I decided to make a card with my favourite image of hers. I had this one as a puzzle before I knew about the paper kits and DVD roms. I just wanted to have some time to reflect.

I used the Sandwich box dies from John Next Door to make the lattice in the background. The paper underneath is from Creative World of Crafts. 

As I have said this is my favourite image from Pollyanna Pickering. 

The sentiment came from another Creative World of Crafts pads and I used a Sue Wilson die to cut the tag from the backing paper. 

This is a Spellbinders poppy die. 

I am sure that whoever I send this card to will love it. I have a few of these images left I am going to be careful where I use them. 

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Challenge 203 at the Crafting from the Heart Challenge blog

Challenge 3 at the Creative Crafting World Challenge 

Have a great week. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Snowdrop Lattice Sympathy Card.

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How is your week going? I hope everything is okay for you. My weeks seem to be rather busy I am not quite sure how it happens. Today I am off to make paper daffodils with a friend.  On Friday I will be helping at my first Felting Workshop for a while. The lady who runs them has become a Grandma again and unfortunately her father died recently.

I wanted to make her a card.

I used the Sandbox dies by John Next Door to make the lattice. 

I stamped the Snowdrop Element stamp with Memento ink so I could colour with Promarkers. The frame was cut with the Double Pierced Circle dies from Creative Expressions.

Another Creative Expressions die. 

This cross was cut with a Spellbinders die. 

This is what our daughter has been doing in America she has been a a convention called Katsucon, She makes some of the costumes herself but both of these are commissions. A group of them went and they are all sightseeing now before they return, 

They are making plans to go back next year. 

I hope this card brings some comfort. There is a big memorial service planned her father was a well respected man. 

I would like to enter challenge 353 at the I ❤ Promarkers Challenge blog ,the Spring Challenge at  Moo-Mania and More, challenge 368 at Penny's Paper- Crafty Challenge blog and challenge 213 at A Gem of a Challenge blog. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Sunflower - Thank You cards

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How is your week going? As you can imagine we are very busy with the lead up to the wedding. This will be my last blog post for a while. Tomorrow we are setting off to Bristol for the wedding. We have a meeting at the venue where we hand over all the decorations and the table plans. Then on Friday everyone starts to gather and Saturday is the day of the wedding. Until we return home I won't be around much in blogland there just won't be time.

I love sunflowers they are just so cheerful so I treated myself to issue 148 of Papercraft Essentials magazine with its free sunflower stamp set and paper pad.

I have just invested in a Tim Holtz stamping platform and I am so glad I have. I just makes stamping so much easier and if you miss a bit it is so easy to go back and re-ink it. For batch making it is a dream I am going to use it to make some Christmas cards. I had all the stamps on the platform and I stamped them all at the same time. I cut the layers out with the Double Pierced Rectangle dies by Creative Expressions. I added a lattice cut with Trellis Edger die set I extended it to make it long enough it was very easy to line up. 

All the stamping was done onto water colour card with Watering Can archival ink. All the colouring was done with my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens. I wanted to stamp the pot straight onto the card as I liked the shadow for the pot. 

The bee came from another stamp set. 

The sentiment came with the set. 

With all the stamps in place it was easy to make this smaller card. 

Sunflowers are so cheerful. I now have three thank you cards for the end of term. 

I would like to enter challenge 122 at the Creative Moments Challenge blog. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Sympathy card

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope your week is going well. It is not long till the weekend. We are seeing our daughter on Saturday and I am in the process of writing a list of things to ask her so I don't forget anything.


I recently used my last Sympathy card. So I decided to make another one for my stash  as sadly you never know when the need will arise.

All the dies I used for this card are designed by Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions. I decided to use the Stitched Lattice Frames dies to create the card so I cut a mat with the largest die and I worked in from there and I made a card blank to suit. I cut the Stitched Lattice in white and added some patterned paper behind. 

I cut the With Sympathy die from mauve and purple card so I was able to create  a shadow effect. The pierced oval was cut with outer die from the Oval Just for You die set. 

I added the Exquisite Poppies to the side of the design, 

I hope I don't have to use this card for a long time. 

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Happy Birthday - Birds by Pollyanna Pickering

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you had a great weekend and are ready for the week ahead. We had a lovely weekend. On Saturday I went to a craft workshop and my husband met a friend in town for lunch in the evening we had a meal with friends. On Sunday in the evening we headed into Southampton to see the light show on the city walls it was amazing. I hope they do more events like this in the future.

I was having a play with some new dies. I am naughty I keep buying myself new bits and pieces

I decided to make a trellis to match the image  with the Trellis Edger die set by Creative Expressions. 

The Happy Birthday was cut with a Crafter's Companion die.

This is another image from my pad of images by Pollyanna Pickering. 

To match the flowers in the image I cut the leave from green vellum with the Laurel die set by Creative Expressions and the flower with the Petite Peony Cluster die set. 

Here are some of the photos I took last night at the light show in Southampton. 

These hanging lights changed colour and made patterns all to gentle music. You could stand among them too. 

There were lots of images projected onto the historic walls. 

It is my half term holiday this week and I have managed to fill every day with seeing different people it is really nice. Someone is even taking me shopping to look at Mother of the Bride outfits. Enjoy your week. 

I would like to enter challenge 40 at the Make My Monday Challenge blog. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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