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 . . . .