First Stampotique card!

I've wanted a Stampotique stamp for at least 18 months but never got around to buying one so when I saw this on sale in a craft shop yesterday I snapped it up! I'm posting this card, not because it's a good card but, because I felt total joy making it! I really love these images and I'm gonna be buying a load more.

The clock die behind the image is a Tim Holtz sizzix die - I bought it in the sale so that's okay then!!! The papers, I think, are Echo Park. The crackle stamp around the image is one from Creative Expressions.

I like making cute cards but this card just makes me smile! I've decided to stretch myself a bit more in the new year, do the cards that I love, whether or not they sell!!

I'm not great with the whole new year thing but a few months ago I came across a Tim Holtz stamp with the following quote "Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass but learning to dance in the rain". I wish, very much, that someone had told me this years ago. So, this year, I'm going to put my wellies on and dance in some puddles! Here's to stormy weather! Big hugs, Jayne xx

Something different!

I happened across the Stamp Man Challenge Blog and saw that the challenge this week was to try a new technique( details here.) I recently bought some grunge paper and fragments and thought this was a great opportunity to try something a bit different.

I stamped the photograph image onto cream card and affixed it to the fragments with glossy accents. I distressed the other side of the fragments with alcohol ink (latte, espresso and ginger). I also stamped the film reel image onto acetate and distressed it with alcohol ink. I love these stamps - the first time I've used them and I'm sure I'll use them lots! They are the Lost and Found set from Tim Holtz.

The cogs and sprockets are also from Ranger. I die cut a couple of flowers (from the Tattered Floral dies from Sizzix) out of Patterned paper and also out of grunge paper and glued the two together. The screw brad is from Creative Expressions.

The paper is from the Prima Printery pad and is just scrumalicious! It's all been distressed with tea dye and walnut stain distress ink.

I had a great time making this card; it was such a nice change from making 'pretty' cards. I wish I could make really great 'distressed' cards - more practice needed I think. Still, I had a great time and that's the main thing!

So glad I 'happened across' the Stamp Man Challenge Blog! Hugs, Jayne xx

Merry Christmas!

What a week! I've felt pretty ghastly all week and it looked like being a pretty rubbish Christmas but thankfully I feel much better today. I'm having a breather before doing battle with the last of the Christmas jobs. I made this card last night because I couldn't leave these yummy papers untouched a minute longer!

The papers are from the Melissa Frances Kitschy Kitchen collection which was part of my Craftime prize. They are such beautiful papers; I think they'll get plenty of outings! The image is LOTV Rosie with a cake and is sooo cute! The flowers, corner and ribbon are all from Wild Orchid Crafts. The little tag behind the image is from the Tim Holtz tiny tabs and tags (a bargain from the Sir Stampalot sale!).

I am shattered and yet there is still so much to do. I did manage to get the cards and instructions written up for the magazine article so, craft wise, the only thing left that I have to do is the card for the first Lili's Little Fairies Challenge Blog. It kicks off on the 5th of January and I hope that you can join us. Until then there is still lots of blog candy to be won so hop over and get your name on the list!

Nearly forgot to say - CULT PENS ROCK! A couple of my very much used copics stopped working yesterday :(  So I placed an order with Cult Pens and the order came today! Now that's what I call service! Also on the honour role of great service this year are Joanna Sheen, Foil Play, LOTV and Wild Orchid Crafts.

I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas and a happy, peaceful and healthy new year. Thank you so much for popping over to my blog and leaving your lovely comments; it feels like I've made lots of new friends. Have a great evening, holiday hugs, Jayne xx

Woo hoo! Check out my new DT banner!!!

I've been on the point of combustion for two weeks but at last I can spill the beans! I am a member of the new design team over at Lili's Little Fairies! I'm not quite sure how that happened and, to be perfectly honest, I'm still quite stunned! I did think that maybe Mummy Fairy Jacqui had made a mistake but then she sent me the banner so it seems not! I now believe in miracles!! What better way to start than to post a card of Lili's little fairies.

I made this in a super hurry yesterday! In the space of a week I became a DT member and got my first magazine commission (from Creative Cardmaking) so I'm in a flat spin at the moment. The beautiful stamp was one sent as part of my Cardmaking and Papercraft prize. All the stamps are beautiful and I'm itching to get them all inked up! The papers are from the Polkadoodles Pretty Sweet CD (really, this is a great CD for backing papers!).
There's LOTS of blog candy on offer over at Lili's Little Fairies so call in and get your name on the list!

It's been a really odd couple of months; I feel like lady luck has been sat on my shoulder (this really is not the norm!) I want to say thank you to Jacqui for giving me this amazing opportunity and hope that you can all call in at the challenge blog and take part in the challenges. For once, I'm really looking forward to the new year.

Big fairy hugs, Jayne xx

Another Tilda . . .

I have left my Tilda's un-inked for far too long! It's another outing for the Polkadoodles Pretty Sweet CD papers. I'm just loving these at the moment. I've distressed the edges of the papers with Ranger's Picket Fence crackle paint. I'd never done this before but love the effect. Hmm, I can see the crackle paint coming out lots in the future! The heart doily is from Joanna Sheen and has been distressed with spun sugar and walnut stain distress ink. The flowers and ribbon are from Wild Orchid Crafts. The charm was from my stash - possibly bought it in the Works. Tilda has been coloured with copics and the edges distressed with spun sugar. I haven't tried pink and brown as a colour combo before but it made a nice change from girlie pinks and lilacs!

I'm going to have a look through all my new Lili of the Valley stamps and do some stamping and colouring whilst watching absolute rubbish on the T.V. Might have a mince pie or two whilst I'm at it. 

Have a great evening, hugs, Jayne xx

Back to the beginning . . .

This is the first Tilda I ever bought and I think she's still my favourite; even with the bow on her hat she has a bit of a tomboy feel. I've teamed her up with my new Bo Bunny Gabrielle Collection papers. How scrummy are these? However, it might have been worth thinking about matching embellishments because halfway through making the card I realized I had practically nothing to go with it!

I got there in the end! The flowers and corner are from Wild Orchid Crafts. Some of the flowers were white and I coloured with a tea green promarker. The corner was silver but I stained it with latte alcohol ink. The gorgeous ribbon in teal green was from Sam Poole who I think has free P&P until Christmas. The butterfly is my new die :) - a magnolia doohickey. I'm going to have to put it on about a thousand cards so I feel as though I got my money's worth!!!!! A few gems and a bit of antique linen distress ink on everything and I was done. It was nice to spend a while colouring - I sure do need more practice.
Hugs, Jayne xx

Christmas came early . . . . .

Thanks to the lovely ladies at LOTV Christmas has most definitely come early for me! In October I found out that I'd won £650 worth of crafting goodies in the Cardmaking and Papercraft Cardmaker of the Year Competition. Today I received the first installment of the prize - a big envelope stuffed full of LOTV goodies. I've not had time to play with any of it yet but I did take a quick piccie.

I can't wait to get inking those stamps! A special 'thank you' to Anne who selected the prizes; she did a great job at choosing a really nice mix of stamps and cute squares.
As predicted I've not had much time to craft in the last couple of days - shopping, wrapping presents and today it was my daughter's school play! Not exactly life in the fast lane! I did manage to print off a few pages of the Polkadoodles 'Pretty Sweet' CD though. If you haven't yet succumbed, I would say that it was worth buying for the scrummy backing papers alone. I made a super quick card!

My only moan about the CD is that I wish that some of the images were small enough to fit inside a standard nestie shape! I'm going to have to faff about re-sizing the images with MCS - this is not so good when you are computer illiterate! Apart from that, it looks to be a really beautiful mix of images and papers.
I'm off to watch Law and Order (when is NCIS coming back?) and do some colouring!
Big hugs, Jayne xx

Lilacs from Jane Shasky

I finally got around to making some birthday cards today. Thank goodness for the Jane Shasky CD from Joanna Sheen - it's packed with beautiful images that make really lovely cards. I think this image is my favourite on the CD; the backing paper is just stunning.

I really love these soft colours and I like how it's fitted into the Grand nestabilities Labels One. The seam binding and flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts ( I got to use all my favourite flowers :) The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley. The leaf punch is from Martha Stewart and I think must be my most used punch.

I've made a few cards using this CD today; it's just beautiful and a real must for any collection.

My Polkadoodles Pretty Sweet and Pretty Tuff Cds came today (at long last) from Create and Craft so I hope to get to play with these tomorrow.

I am nowhere near sorted for Christmas so I may have to abandon crafting for a few days to get buying and wrapping presents.

Thank you for visiting my blog I really do appreciate it! Have a great evening, hugs, Jayne x

Anything but a Christmas Card

The LOTV challenge this week is 'Anything but a Christmas Card'. My daughter has been invited to a 4th birthday party at the end of December and so I decided to try out this book card (with thanks to Edna at Anotherdayanothercard.blogspot.com for pointing me in the right direction for the instructions). Find the link here

The image is LOTV; I've used it loads! It's been coloured in with copics and distressed with dusty concord. The papers are from Nitwits - I think this is the Halloween Hooligans FQB. The sentiment is a Hobby Art stamp as is the little spider inside the book. I've used the Tim Holtz Vintage Market alphabet dies for the lettering. The cut bat and cat are also from the Halloween Hooligans FQB and I've re-sized them in MCS.

I stitched (me with a needle! Didn't manage to sew a button onto my coat though!) a cobweb in the corner of the book with some sparkly black thread.

For a first attempt, I'm quite happy with it and more importantly I hope that Oliver loves it. I still need to make a box but I'll leave that for another day. I must confess that assembling the pages turned out to be quite stressful and quite a bit of swearing went on! I'm sure that my next attempt will be more successful!
I'm off to watch Harry's Law with a nice cuppa and a chocolate or two. It would be foolish to start my diet before Christmas wouldn't it?
Have a great evening, hugs, Jayne x

Crafter's Companion 'New Beginnings' Challenge

Today, I was supposed to be making birthday cards but my heart wasn't in it so I made this instead!

The image is a Crafter's Companion S.W.A.L.K stamp. It's been coloured with copics and then had copious amounts of glitter slathered on top! I have distressed the edges with spun sugar Distress ink. The frame around the image is the large circle motif from the Fleur de Lis Motifs spellbinders (needs must - I don't have a large enough scalloped circle die to fit this image!). The doily heart (from Joanna Sheen) has also been distressed with spun sugar Distress ink. The corner is also from the Fleur de Lis spellbinders dies. The papers are from a Nitwit FQB (I think this one is called possibilities and it is scrummy). The seam binding ribbon and flowers are from WOC.

Apologies for the photography; I really can't seem to get a good picture of an easel card.

I'm going to enter this into the Crafter's Companion 'New Beginnings' challenge - I'm still giddily awaiting my prize from winning last months challenge. Can't wait!
I hope my crafting mojo returns soon - it's hard work without it!

Have a great evening, hugs, Jayne x

Crazy Week!

I've got absolutely nothing done all week! It's been one thing after another and now I only have a few days to make several cards for my niece and her mum! Oh well, maybe some pressure will help the awol crafting mojo return. This card is for my nieces mum; I've made so many cards for them over the years it's getting tricky coming up with something new.

The image is a Sam Poole stamp from Creative Expressions (Travel set). I've distressed the edges with Victorian Velvet distress ink. The papers are Papermania (using up my stash!). The black seam binding is also from Sam Poole's shop. The yummy flowers are from WOC - I love the black and pink together. The inside of the card has been done to match the outside I just forgot to take a picture!
It's been a funny old week. I won the Crafter's Companion challenge blog (randomly selected) and then I won some ribbon on the Joanna Sheen blog hop and then I got some ridiculously fabulous news that I can't share just yet but has made me super giddy!
Just a short post today - I've been at a birthday party full of 4/5 year olds and I have a throbbing headache! Here's hoping the crafting mojo returns this week.
Have a great evening, hugs, Jayne x

Red, aqua and a caterpillar!

I thought I'd try something a bit different to try to muster up some enthusiasm and I think it might have worked! These colours are a bit outside my comfort zone but I quite like them together.

The image is the LOTV image I used on the advent calendar (D Day tomorrow!). The card is from a Kanban kit that I thought was destined for ebay. I hated the toppers that came with it but once I discarded them I decided I quite liked the backing papers! The flowers are WOC, again. It was a really good excuse to use the aqua and white flowers that I think are my favourite. Okay, I have a lot of favourites. lol. The card blank was made from a Go Kreate frilly frame XXL die with a spellbinder circular aperture cut out of the middle. All in all I'm happy that at least I don't hate the card!
More importantly, my four year old daughter made this fabulous caterpillar with her new plasticine.

How fab is that? I promised I would put it in my blog for the world to see. I didn't tell her that probably only me and her dad read my blog!!!
Ah well, off to have a cuppa and catch up with the news. Have a great rest of your day, hugs, Jayne x

A pink card . . . . . for a change!

Apologies for a super quick post - it's not been the best of weeks and I think I may have over done the Christmas cardmaking! I now can't face cardmaking of any variety. This was a card made for my Mother-in-Law for her birthday a few weeks ago. The stamp was an impulse buy (!); one of a set of about five sheets of stamps from QVC. I don't think it's even marked with the brand name. I don't think I've even used any of the others but this bouquet has proved jolly useful for all sorts of occasions. I think the papers are papermania and a Forever Friends Easter pack. I really love the Martha Stewart lattice border punch; pretty but not over fussy. The image is coloured with copics and the seam binding and flowers are WOC again (I am such a shocker for buying embellishments).
Hopefully in the next few days I'll recover some crafting mojo and get back to work - I hope so as not even wanting to craft is not a good sign . .

Have a lovely evening, hugs, Jayne xx

Super fast Christmas card!

I was intending to spend yesterday making Christmas cards but all did not go to plan.


I spent nearly an hour searching the house for my lost mobile phone which remained resolutely lost. Then I decided to make a huge batch of chilli. I spent ages preparing it then I put it on the hob and went to hang some clothes out. Returned minutes later to find the chilli totally burnt to the bottom of the pan - the whole lot ruined! I then put the pan on the kitchen work surface and burnt a brown ring into that. In clearing up I got chilli all down myself. In a hurry to get my dirty jumper off I forgot to unbutton it and a button flew off. The day really didn't improve!!

So in the end I had half an hour to salvage something of the day and make a card. Hurray for the Jane Shasky CD (the new one from Joanna Sheen). It is absolutely gorgeous and is now my fave Sheenie CD. The card isn't rocket science but I can make lots of them quickly so my cards to family and friends are sorted.

 I really love the image and the colours and is a nice easy one to replicate. At least the day wasn't a total disaster. I'm busy trying to make my daughter an advent calendar - hopefully I'll have it ready to photograph in a few days.

Hugs, Jayne x

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. . . .

I think we've ascertained that I really love this S.w.a.l.k image lol! I'm going to put it away tomorrow. Promise. I'm always buying magazines with 'free' papers in them and then never use the papers. This months Creative Cardmaking, though, has some beautiful papers in soft colours so I've started to make use of them. I love this soft turquoise and green and I have lots of WOC flowers to match so it was a done deal.

 There was just enough matching papers to make this easel set of drawers. The iced lime ribbon is from Wild Orchid and beautifully matched the green accents in the papers. The charm was from a pack of 6 from the works which was a bargain at £1!! I really love making these little drawers - I made an advent calendar with 24 drawers for a competition and now my daughter wants one in pink for Christmas. Best start that soon.

I really need to hunt out some images for more traditional cards to cover my bases but I'm loving these S.w.a.l.k images so much I need a nudge in the right direction!

I've eaten too much rhubarb and custard cake and need to go and veg on the sofa with a cup of tea! Diet starts tomorrow. Really it must.

Have to do some h*******k tomorrow :(  That'll take my mind off food!

Hugs, Jayne xx

Walking in a Winter Wonderland . . .

I've tried to crack on with the Christmas cards today so here are a couple of quick cards. Again I apologise for the photography; I must try to take photos in daylight or it's a disaster! The first is the same S.w.a.l.k image as yesterday. I do really like this image and it will be perfect for my daughter to give to one of her school friends.

 

The whimsy stamp banner die has had another outing - I couldn't resist! I'm not a huge fan of green but this soft green is beautiful. The second card is made from a Tatty Teddy kit I bought ages ago. Pink and green again! I must try something else tomorrow or all the cards will the same.

The sentiment is from LOTV and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

My husband picked up two crafty parcels for me from the post office this evening containing goodies from Sir Stampalot (well, they were having a sale) and WOC (lots of yummy flowers). I also, accidentally of course, ordered the Jane Shasky CD from Joanna Sheen. Those wobbly shelves are a real hazard!!!! So, I am off to investigate the parcels and also try to find Christmas backing paper that is neither pink nor green. I may be sometime  . . . .

Hugs, Jayne x

Pretty in Pink!

Finally work on the Christmas cards has begun. This of course means that I, the dining room, my daughter and the dog are now covered in glitter! This Crafter's Companion S.w.a.l.k image is just too cute for words. It practically screams out 'colour me in pink and throw a mountain of glitter over me!' It would have been rude not to.

The image has been coloured with copics and then distressed around the edges with spun sugar distress ink (this is such a pretty ink). Obviously then copious amounts of glitter was applied to the image and then around the matt for good measure. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and again have been glittered. The papers I think are from a papermania pad (I think it had some penguins in it somewhere - something and Percy perhaps!?). I love this girly shade of pink - pity they don't do a whole pad of just these two designs. The snowflake is from a spellbinders set. I had to buy them as the craft goblin has stolen my Marianne creatables snowflakes! The bauble is also a spellbinders nestie and is just the right size for the sentiment. I hardly ever use the smaller nesties so am chuffed whenever I find a use for them!

I'm going to try to enter this into the Crafter's Companion Let it Snow challenge - this computer business is quite stressful. If all goes well I think I may celebrate with a cup of tea and a slice of M&S rhubarb and custard swiss roll. The diet starts when I've finished the roll!!!!

Hope you have a great week. Hugs, Jayne x

Not exactly a Christmas Card . . . .

I'm struggling to get into the Christmas spirit. I don't think listening to Bob Dylan whilst Christmas crafting was conducive to festive joy!! May have to rethink my crafty music. I have at last made one Christmas card - it's a bit wonky in places ( I have a throbbing headache) but luckily it hasn't made it's way onto the computer so I'm posting the card I made whilst I was supposed to be Christmas crafting yesterday.

The paper is from the Printery pad from Prima. I think this is my favourite pack of papers ever. It's absolutely gorgeous and will go with anything vintage. I can't believe I only bought one pad. I distressed it with tea dye and walnut stain inks and scuffed the edges with scissors. The image is a Sam Poole Creative Expressions stamp.I distressed the edges with tea dye.

The flowers are cut using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Bigz Dies. I cut them first from grunge paper and then from the patterned paper and glued the two together. In the centre there is a screw effect brad from Creative Expressions. The little tickets are super cute and I think they're from Maya Road. To finish in the bottom left of the card there are some cogs, again from Sir Tim's collection (sorry that they don't show up too well on the card).

I'm going back to try to move forward with my Christmas cards but I'm feeling super rough (a cold on it's way methinks). So I may veg on the sofa with the dog and a packet of digestives.

Hugs, Jayne x

Saved by a Flower Fairy!

My daughter's schoolfriend, Lois, is five tomorrow so I needed to make a quick girly card. I didn't have time to do lots of colouring so I hit my CD stash. I've barely used my Crafter's Companion Flower Fairy CD but after looking through it today I'm not sure why that is. It's really beautiful and has some great backing papers and after much faffing I decided to use Zinnia (my favourite). In purple (surely not!)

The photography is truly dire - my fault I left it till this evening to do the piccies and couldn't get decent light anywhere. Huge apologies - still you can get the idea . . .

I've used the spellbinders grand scalloped nestie to make the base card. I've gone mad with the gems (again) but this is partly because my local craft shop (Samuel Taylor's) was doing a promo of 6 packs of gems for £5. Super bargain! So I didn't feel too guilty using them with gay abandon. The image is decoupaged (okay, it doesn't really show on the photo but it is. Honest). I've used lots of glitter too. Maybe the next photo is better . . .

Okay, so not really!

Hopefully Lois will like the card, more importantly I hope she has a fabulous birthday.

I'm going back to colouring Christmas images tonight so that, hopefully, I'll get some Christmas cards made tomorrow. I live in hope.

Hugs, Jayne x

Lili of the Valley 'Bright and Sparkly' theme challenge.

What girl could resist a challenge entitled  'Bright and Sparkly'? If it calls for glitter and gems I'm there! I love this image of the bride and groom - not too cute and not old fashioned; just perfect.

Well they did say sparkly! The image is coloured with a combination of copics and spectrum noirs. It was my first go with the spectrum noirs and I quite liked them but more practice needed I think. The flowers, seam binding ribbon and silver corner embellishment are all from Wild Orchid Craft. The papers were a freebie from Creative Cardmaking magazine. I really love them but I'm not sure whose they are. They have something of the Nitwit about them so I might hit the website to see if I can match them to a collection.

I really have to get back to making Christmas cards (I'm just not sure I can face it!!). Hopefully I will wake tomorrow full of the joys of the season.

Hugs, Jayne x

Funky Fairy!

My beautiful niece is seventeen in a couple of weeks time and I have to make three cards for her! She's not really a pretty floral card kinda gal so it's been tough. This is the first card I've made for her. The image is a Debbi Moore image from the Kerri Jo collection of stamps. This is a great range of stamps  - especially for tweens and teens. I just love this fairy's attitude!

The papers are Papermania again - see I'm trying to keep my promise and use some of my stash. I love the colours with this one; any excuse to use purple! This was my first chance to use the black lace which is just gorgeous. The lace and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts but I think the black seam binding was from Sam Poole's on-line shop (an excellent shop with lots of Creative Expression goodies). The corner is a die from the Fleur De Lis Accents Spellbinders Shapeabilities. It's a really useful little corner and I'm using it lots.

Ahh, it's that time again when I have to do battle with the computer and attempt to post this. I'm sure one day I'll get the hang of this. No doubt blogger will then change the system!!!

Happy crafting,

Jayne x

If this works it will be a minor miracle!

I wish, really wish, I was more technically capable. I am a disaster with all things electronic and computery and so I will be amazed if this post actually ends up on my blog. Still, I will continue in good faith!

This image is my all time favourite Lili of the Valley stamp. It could be me many moons ago and it could also be my daughter now! The papers are , I think, Papermania. I am on a mission to start using my gigantic paper stash and this card was made as part of this mission. I promised myself that I wouldn't buy any more packs of beautiful papers until I had used a sigificant amount of my stash. I'm really rubbish at keeping promises!!!

I went a bit mad with the embellies on this one. I'm loving hatpins at the moments and a girl has to have flowers on a card, right?

So now I'm going to cross my fingers really tight and try to post this. I'm not holding my breath . . . .