Snowdrop Sympathy Card

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you are having a good week. I am enjoying the sun but not so much the cold. I did go out with my friend yesterday and as we both like crafting we ended up in Hobbycraft. We did buy a few bits well it would have been rude not to. Today I will be crafting.

I heard some sad news on Monday that a friend had just lost his father after a rather long illness. The friend lives a long way away so the only thing for me to do was to make a card. These cards are never easy to make. I do like to make them though as it gives me a chance to think about the person while I am busy. The card has been received and I have permission to share it.

I decided to use the snowdrop stamp before I decided on a design . The aperture was cut with the Double Pierced Circle dies from Creative Expressions. I do find the basic shape dies very useful. I am thinking about buying the hexagons. The butterfly paper was in my stash and so was the ribbon which came from a gift bag. 

The snowdrop stamp is from a set designed by John Lockwood when he used to work for Creative Expressions. I stamped it with a grey Memento ink onto Neenah card stock and it was coloured with my Promarkers. 

This is another Creative Expressions die. 

I hope you enjoy the rest of the week. I will be back tomorrow with another Design Team Piece. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Penguin Christmas Card

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you are having a good day. The sun is shining here at last but it is still cold. I said the posts would be shorter and this one will be.

This is the Christmas card I made for our daughter and son-in-law. It will be their first Christmas as a married couple.

I used the Falling Snow Embossing folder in the background. I used the snowflakes from the Winter Stamp set from John Next Door. The trees and the slope were cut with a die that came free with a magazine. 

The penguins were stamped and cut out with a matching stamp and die set from Sizzix. 

The sentiment is in the same set with its own die. 

I used these penguins on their place cards at the wedding. 

Have you heard about the next issue of Quick Cards Made Easy being their last one? It is very sad I have enjoyed that magazine. 

I would like to enter the challenge starting on 19th December at the TTCRD challenge blog and Challenge 508 at the Cute Card Thursday Challenge blog.  

Enjoy the rest of the day. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Nativity Christmas Cards using an LC Designs Stamp and Distress Oxide Backgrounds

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

Well that was a busy weekend. I hope you had a good time and did something nice. On Saturday I went to a Craft Workshop for most of the day. My husband got my car to the garage to be fixed, it needs picking up today. Then he drove to Aldershot to collect his 90 year old mum. He drove her to Mottisfont so she could see the Kaffe Fassett textiles exhibition. After lunch they came home and waited for me to return. Then he drove us back to Aldershot to collect his dad. Then we all went to Farnham for my husband's brother's 60th Birthday party. Yesterday we went to the first rehearsal for a Christmas choir we have volunteered for to sing  at Church.

I have been making cards with Distress Oxide backgrounds again. I do love Distress Oxides.

I made fourteen cards altogether. I started by using Distress Oxides to make backgrounds on water colour paper. You put the Oxides on your craft mat, spritz them with water and run the card through. You just repeat until you are happy with the effect. I did dry the sheets with a heat gun so the layers of ink are dry before applying the next layer.  I used the Falling Snow embossing folder to create one of the layers.  

I used my Tim Holtz Stamping Platform to stamp the image and the sentiment at the same time. The stamp is called Silhouette Manger by LC Designs. Once stamped I coloured over the image with a black Spectrum Noir sparkle pen to so the image sparkles. 

I made ten of these small cards. I wanted them for the small group we meet with. 

I have been having a bit of a think about blogging and why I do it. I do like sharing what I make and I enjoy being on Design teams and entering competitions. But the blog has become a bit of a time consuming monster and weirdly I am finding I have less time to devote to it now I am not working. I think it is because I can say yes to more of the things I want to do.  So I think I will be blogging less and commenting less. I wonder if I will be able to stick to this? There is also  a pile of cards that hasn't been used so I don't need to make as many at the moment. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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A Birthday Card for someone Special

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

How is your week going?  The work is still continuing on the drive the patio is now included in the plan and changing the wall and the fence. It is a very big job. We are having it done at the same time as our neighbours it should look very smart when it is finished. I will post some pictures when it is finished.

A few weeks ago I made a card for a special friend. He should have seen the card by now so it should be okay to post.

I did start by creating the image. I made the mats and layers match the colours I had used. The ribbons were in my stash. 

I used the circle media plate, that John Lockwood uses, with my Tim Holtz stamping platform. I used two shades of Distress ink on the plate that I spread out with a brayer. Then I used the platform to place the stamps. I must say the stamping platform has transformed my stamping. It is so easy to set something up and to stamp several of them very quickly. I have made quite a few Christmas cards like this recently. 

I tried two different types of paper water colour card and a smooth stamping card. I did like both results I decided to use the one on the water colour card. I will be making a card with the other image. 

I was very pleased with how this card turned out. I will be using these stamps again. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Winter Trees Christmas Card

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

How was your weekend? Did you do something nice?  We caught up on jobs in the garden our drive is going to be paved soon so it needed doing. My husband also printed the Save the Dates for our nephew and his fiancee.  This didn't go so well as the postcards wouldn't feed through the printer. He ended up scanning the back of one and typing the details in. Then I had to cut them out and stick them to the back of the postcards. We did loose a lot of time. They will be going in the post today. Next will be the invites.

I am not sure where I read it but someone said that people rely too much on dies in their card making. Now I love my dies and I use them a lot. This just got me wondering if I could make a card an not use any dies. I did use the Falling Snow embossing folder though.

I had my Tim Holtz stamping platform out to make another card. I have three of the mixed media plates that John Lockwood uses. I also have his Winter Trees stamp set. So I had the circle mixed media plate on the stamping platform and I inked it with Chipped Sapphire Distress ink that I spread out with a brayer. Then I used the snowflake stamps, from the Winter Trees set, to remove some of the ink from the media plate. Once the circle was complete I stamped the tree the pot and the sentiment with black archival. The platform makes is so easy to put the stamps where you want them. Then I took the paper from the stamp press and put in on my craft sheet. I put some Chipped Sapphire Distress ink on the make and I used the snowflake stamp to put snowflakes round the circle. 

I added a red ribbon from my stash. 

Have a great week. 

I would like to enter challenge 436 at the Allsorts Challenge blog , challenge 37 at the Merry Christmas Challenge blog , challenge 44 at A Snowflakes Promise challenge blog and the Anything Goes Christmas challenge at the Winter Wonderland Challenge blog. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Crafts Galore Encore Challenge Blog - October Challenge

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

Happy Sunday and welcome to October. It is proper Autumn now. The bunnies went home yesterday.  Now I just have the room to clear.

The new challenge starts on the Crafts Galore Encore Challenge Blog and the theme is Anything Goes and this time the sponsor is Rick St Dennis. I was able to choose an image from the fabulous store to use for my card. The prize it two images from the store for the winner.

I found the dark snowflake paper in my stash. I used rich gold and reds for the mats and layers. 

There are many wonderful images in the store to suit all tastes. If you click on the image you should be taken to the store. 

This image is called Angel Wreath and it is on sale here.  I printed it onto to card and I coloured it with my Promarkers. I cut is out with my ScanNcut as like how you can leave a border round the image. If I did this by hand it would not be even. 

Now I had coloured the image and I thought it needed a message in the centre. I would not have attempted this without my Tim Holtz's Stamping platform because I could put the stamp exactly where I wanted it and if I missed a bit it was easy to restamp. I am finding the platform such a useful tool. Finally I sprayed the whole image with Spray and Sparkle. 

Now I did start with a smaller image but I decided to go larger for my main card. Well you know I don't like anything to go to waste I made a smaller card with the off cuts from the bigger cards. I had to use a different stamp for the sentiment the other one didn't fit. 

Here they are together. They will both sent out this Christmas. My husband even remarked that he liked the bigger card and usually he doesn't say anything unless asked directly. 

Enjoy the rest of the day

I would like to enter the Anything Goes Christmas at the Winter Wonderland Challenge blog , challenge 44 at the Snowflakes Promise Challenge blog and challenge 343 at the I Love Promarkers Challenge blog. 

Happy Crafting 

Hugs Jackie

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Simple Gingerbread Man Christmas Card

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

How was your weekend? I hope it was a good one. We had a lovely day on Saturday that started with breakfast out and ended with us receiving the bunnies so our daughter and her new husband can go on Honeymoon. They are booked to go Florida and we all know about the weather there at the moment we will just have to wait and see what happens. At least being here they are safe. My back is continuing to improve.

On Sunday I actually had some craft time. My husband decided he wanted work on his tax form. I set up a meal to cook in the slow cooker that left me free to craft. I have a mixed media project that I am working on  that has to be done is stages. Once I had got as far as I could I made a few simple Christmas cards to the same design. My husband finished the tax form which is good. He is very organised this year.

I really did use a lot of scraps. I found some A5 card blanks with envelopes (which I am going to stamp) and the papers came from my scrap pile as well as the black and gold card. 

This is a stamp from Sizzix and it comes with a matching die. 

I just love this gingerbread man stamp from the Cookie-Cutter stamp set from Stampin Up I have the matching punch. I used my Tim Holtz stamping platform and this is the first time that I have got such a good impression from the stamp. I do like to do a lot of stamping in one go when I have the stamping platform out. 

Meet the bunnies they are staying with us for about four weeks. The house already smells of hay. 

There are five of these cards. They are ideal being small enough and flat enough to post.

I would like to enter Weeks 297 and 298 at Pixie's Snippets Playground. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Quick Christmas Card

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

How is your week going?  I have had a very busy two days. I am hoping today will be a little calmer. There are so many thing I want to do.

I am still making Christmas cards. This year I don't really have any idea how many I will need. This card was really quick to make.

Last year I got the member's gift from Create and Craft it was a stack of A6 Christmas images called Cosy Christmas. I did use some of the sheets last Christmas but I have struggled with ideas for some of the sheets. The background is one of the sheets. 

I added an image that I got in a little packet of toppers from the Range. This is the last one. I am trying to use things up. 

Earlier in the year our local craft shop had an enormous sale. I picked up this IndigoBlu Christmas stamp for just 50p. Yesterday I used it for the first time. It is a rubber stamp and it worked well with my Tim Holtz stamping platform. You can flip the top so it can handle clear or rubber stamps. I did quite a bit of stamping yesterday while it was out. The results are very good. Some stamps I had struggled with before stamped first time.  It is also very good for batch stamping once you have everything set up. 

This is another card for the Christmas pile which is getting bigger. 

Enjoy the rest of the week 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Mixed Media Plate and Fairies

Hi My Crafty Blog Friends

How have you all been? It seems like ages since I have blogged. The wedding was brilliant we had such a lovely day. The zoo was such a good location for the wedding. When I have sorted my photos I will do a special blog post about the wedding. The happy couple went home after the wedding. Their honeymoon is in September.

The weekend before the wedding I made it to the Newbury Craft show. It was lovely because we had a good catch up with John Lockwood and he shared some of his plans with us and we saw Sam and some of his new stamps and stencils which you all know about now. He was demonstrating with mixed media plates that he was using with a Stamping Platform. I was impressed and I bought all three of the shapes of plate that were at the show. When you get home is it always difficult to remember what you have seen. Anyway in the week before the wedding I had a play.

Having watched John again on Hochanda I want to have another play. I used distress ink and stamps from my collection. I do seem to have a lot of fairy stamps. I used various stencils from my collection too. Though now I have seen John's stamps and stencils I want those too. All the black stamping was done with black archival ink. The frames were made with the Douvle  

This was the first card I made. 

All the cards were sprayed with Crafter's Companion Pearl Spray and Shine. 

I do want to make some Christmas cards with the mixed media plates. I think they will really speed up my card production. 

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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