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