Dragons Lair

Hello my crafting friends, well today 28 years ago I gave birth to my beautiful Son, he has always been a joy and I am very proud of him. So Happy Birthday Jonny!

I have always made my children's cards these last few years so this was no exception but what to do was the problem, he loved the series Game of Thrones and has always liked Dragons, therefore, I decided to use Flights of Fantasy CD Rom to make a card. This is what I came up with:

My apologies for the bad images, as I said before my PC has died so have been trying to use the software that is on this old service set up and cannot get what I want, just to crop is a feat in itself lol! Some posts are scheduled so that is why the images are as they have always been, I have posts scheduled through February so I hope to have a working PC by the time they run out lol!

Now on this CD there are loads of fabulous images but very few of Men for the Male cards, these two images were among them and seeing as they were this size I felt they suited a gate-fold card. So I scored and folded a sheet of Black card, found some nice Green papers on the CD, cut these to size and matted up the front, the images did not look right straight onto these so I got an old, and I mean old, paper pad out and found some paper showing negative of leaves, I quite liked this so I cut to size and matted and layered on top of the Green papers, on top of this I mounted the images on either side of the gate folds.

On the inside I matted it up with Gold Linen textured card then on the two sides I matted some more paper from the CD, sorry this is not very visible here but I have to say looking at the image on my laptop freaked me out a bit as it looked just like a ghost like figure of a face in the paper on the right inner fold. The pattern is like folds of material and its between the folds that look like a face lol!

In the center I attached two half doily die cuts from the Downton Abbey range, arranging them in the top & bottom corners.

I printed off an image of this beautiful Red Dragon and attached it in the center using Foam tape.


I shall add a verse to one of the inner gate folds before giving him the card as at the moment I have just die cut 'With Love' & 'Son' out of Red miri card and put these at the bottom of the gate folds on the front.

Items Used:

Sheena Douglass Black Card
Crafters Companion Twin Papercrafting CD Rom Collection  Flights of Fantasy
Crafters Companion Dowton Abbey Metal Die Half Doily
Creative Expressions Foundation Card Rich Green
12 X 12 Paper Pad (own stash)
Create and Craft Gold Linen Textured Miri Card 
Foam Tape
Red Stars Miri card (own stash)
Tattered Lace Die 'With Love'
Joanna Sheen Signature Die 'Son'

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx

Christmas Wishes for You

Hello my crafting friends, hope this finds you all safe and well. Not long to go and the first month is over my 'o' my!

Now for todays post  I have another Christmas card for you.

I started by folding a sheet of Centura Pearl Pastel Blue card in half to make and A5 size card then cut a piece of White card and Periwinkle Blue card to size for matting and layering. I distressed the edges on both of these using a pair of scissors.

In the middle of the Blue card I die cut a circle out then stamped my Christmas Wishes sentiment using Stazon Jet Black onto the White card underneath so it showed through the aperture.

On the Blue card I stamped a musical melody across the top with my Versamark ink pad then heat embossed with White embossing powder. I then ran the Blue card  through a snowflake embossing folder to give it some texture.

I die cut the Peace sentiment twice out of Silver miri card and cut it down so I trimmed off the 'Peace' word  and placed the decorative edges around the circle aperture. 

In my stash I already had some Poinsettias, snowflakes,  a sleigh and reindeer, the sleigh and reindeer I had inked with my Versamark then covered with Glamour dust to add some sparkle.  All these I placed on to the card as seen.

I had some beads on wire in my stash that were recycled from some old Christmas crackers so I placed them on the card randomly. To finish the card I added some snow writer all around the edges and on the Poinsettias.

There may be a lot going on in this card but I think it works, its different anyhow lol!

Items used:

Inkylicious Clear Polymer Stamps Musical Melody & Christmas Wishes

Spellbinders Snowflakes

Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia

Spellbinders Peace Sentiment

Tattered Lace Embossing Folder Snowflake

Cottage Cutz Elegant Sleigh

Memory Box Leaping Deer

Deco Art Glamour Dust

Deco Art Snow Writer

Papermania Embossing Powder Seafoam White

White Hammer Card

Crafters Companion Centura Pearl Pastel Card Blue

Creative Expressions Foundation Card Periwinkle

Create and Craft Silver Miri Card

Beads - Recycled from Christmas Crackers 

Stazon Jet Black

Versamark Ink Pad

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx

Winter Robin

Hello my crafting friends good to have you visit me today I do appreciate it and look forward to reading your comments.

Now my PC has died on me so I am having to manage with an old laptop at the moment that we cannot load windows onto, so my son has managed to get some old service on here, at least it works until we get the PC sorted, actually I am hoping we don;t get it sorted then maybe hubby will buy a new one tee hee! Am I naughty lol! I can get the internet thankfully other wise there would be no blog at all, not sure if I could live without that!!!

Today I am back with a Christmas card.

I folded a sheet of Gold card in half to form an A5 size base card then matted this with a piece of Winter themed paper from a 12X12 pad I bought a while back from The Range, I distressed the edges and turned the corners before taping it onto my base card.

I cut this image of a little Robin sitting on a fence in the snow from one of my Christmas cards so I placed this onto my card at an angle then added some Fir branches and Red Poinsettia in the bottom left corner, some Ivy in the top right corner and a Red bow in the top left corner. I found some beads I had stashed away that came from some Christmas crackers a couple of years ago so keeping them on the wire I added them to my card by wrapping them round the bow, Ivy and corner of the paper.

To finish the card I added some snow writer all around the edges of the paper, the Robin image, the Poinsettia and fir branches and the beads.

I quite like the look of this fairly quick and easy card I hope you do too.

Items Used:

Gold Card

Winter Themed 12X12 Paper Pad

Image of a Robin (Christmas card recycled)

Sheena Douglass Ivy Perfect Partners  Christmas Ivy

Sheena Douglass Perfect Partners  Yuletide Greetings

Spellbinders Perfect Poinsettia

Red Card

Red Ribbon

Deco Art Snow Writer

Beads (Recycled from Christmas Crackers)

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx

Doggy Tag

Hello my crafting friends, hope today finds you all safe and well. Cannot believe how quick this month is going, Christmas will be here before we know it lol!

Well today's post is not a Christmas card but another one using 'It's a Dogs Life'  Stencil of Sheena Douglass. I combined it with two other  stencils 'Terrific Topiary' and 'Floral Canopy'.

I started with some White Stamping card and coloured it with Aquatints Pastels, I think these have become my favourite of all the Aquatints as they are such lovely soft colours.

Once dry I placed the Doggy stencil where I wanted it and inked through with Black Soot. I then placed the Topiary stencil onto the card and inked through with my Versamark Ink Pad, I added Bronze embossing powder onto the branches and Green embossing enamel on the leaves and heated with a heat gun after each application. I cleaned my stancil, turned it over an repeated the process on the other side of the card.

Along the bottom of the card I used the stencil Floral Canopy in exactly the same way with my Versamark ink pad then the Green embossing enamel, this time I added some Bronze embossing powder after just to add some definition  in the leaves. 

To finish the card I matted it onto Black card and then the base White card.

Items Used:

Sheena Douglass White Stamping Card

Sheena Douglass Black Card

Sheena Douglass Stencils 'It's a Dogs Life; 'Terrific Topiary' and 'Floral Canopy'.

Aquatints Pastels

Basic White Card

Papermania Embossing Powder Bronze

WOW! Embossing Enamel Green

Versamark Ink Pad

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx

Hare in the Snow

Morning to you all today, or afternoon to others lol! I hope this finds you all safe and well. I do appreciate you stopping by and visiting me and I would love to do the same for you so if you have a blog of your own please share the link so I am able to return the favour.

Now today's post is one I made following a Christmas card I received from a friend, I loved the image and being as the Hare was so like the one Sheena had designed I had to give it a go of replicating it. I must say I was very happy with the final result. I will put a photo of the actual card image at the bottom of this post.

I started with some White Stamping card and using the edge of the Clarity craft mat I inked over the edge, blotting gently with Weathered Wood to form some snow hills, I then turned the card round and inked over with Stormy Sky and then Chipped Sapphire along the edge.

Then I made a mistake, yes I did say a mistake, by doing the moon first, (I will explain further down) for this I drew a circle (round a lid of some sort) with light pencil then faux bleached with water, I then inked it again with Weathered Wood and a bit of Stormy Sky in the center going round in a circular motion.  It was then I painted over the moon with some Drawing Gum knowing I had to stamp the Hare in front, this was my mistake as I should have stamped the Hare first and painted the Gum over that!!! As once I had stamped the Hare, obviously when removing the gum I also removed the Hares face!!! Lol! I call it my senior moment! So I had to result in stamping the Hare again, colouring him in with Brushed Cordroy and Ground Espresso then cut him out to place in front of the moon. Now because I had done this it meant he was not sitting behind the first snow hill, so that resulted in cutting a piece of card the same shape, inking it up and placing it over the top at the bottom of the card so his feet were covered. My silly mistake led to more work but it was achievable and the results were just as good. 

 

Using a Glue pen I drew over the top half of the moon randomly, let it dry a little then added Gold embossing powder and heated it with a heat gun, now this takes a little longer than normal because the glue will be slightly raised and its drying the glue as well as the embossing powder, hope this makes sense? 

To finish the image I splattered White Acrylic paint over the card using an old toothbrush to give the effect of snow!

I had left a margin all around the image as I was going to add glitter but I decided to add Gilding Flakes instead, to do this I placed strong Red tape round the edge of the card then added the gilding flakes and rubbed off the excess.

To finish the card I matted it onto some Dark Blue card then onto my Base card.

Items Used:

Sheena Douglass Little Bit Sketchy A5 Stamp Its a Perfect Day  

Sheena Douglass White Stamping Card

Blue Hammer Card

Gilding Flakes Summer Meadow

Papermania Embossing Powder Gold

Tim Holtz Distress Inks Weathered Wood, Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire, Brushed Cordroy, Ground  Espresso

Glue Pen 

Acrylic Paint White

Stazon Jet Black                                                                                             

 Actual Card Image






Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx

Be the Person...

Good Morning my crafting friends, hope the weather is being kind to you where ever you are, we seem to be getting a lot of rain of late but at least its still quite mild with it, well in the daytime of an evening it can get a bit chilly!

Today I am showing a card I made for one of Sheena's shows last week, it showcases one of the Man's Best Friend set.

I had used this stencil in my snowy scene which you can view HERE but decided to make it a summers day with this one, well at least a warmer day!!!

I first inked the card up with Stormy Sky and  Peeled paint distress inks then added the cobble stone path using Pumice Stone and Brushed Cordroy distress inks.

I inked the dog playing with his Frisbee through the stencil using Black Soot and Fired Brick, I put him on the right side as if to show him playing on the grass in the park.

Using the Victorian Park stencil I positioned the stencil where I wanted to  put the railings and inked through with my Versamark ink Pad then heat embossed with Black embossing powder, I cleaned the stencil, turned it over and repeated it for the other side matching up the center posts.

To finish the card I made the sentiment using one of the stamps from the set, I coloured the background of the tag to match the sky.

Items used:

Basic White card

Sheena Douglass Black Card

Sheena Douglass White Stamping Card

Sheena Douglass Stencil A Dog's Life

Sheena Douglass Stencil Victorian Park

Sheena Douglass Little Bit Sketchy Stamps Man's Best Friend

Tim Holtz Distress Inks Stormy Sky, Peeled Paint, Brushed Cordroy, Pumice Stone, Fired Brick and Black Soot

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx

Musical Songbird

Hello my  crafting friends good to have you visit me today, I hope this finds you all safe and well. Well we have not had any snow here yet but its getting colder so I don't think it will be long.

I have something a little different for you today as I decided to play yesterday putting odd bits together and hoping to create something a little vintage looking.

I have had these papers in my stash for quite some time so thought it was about time I started to used them as they are really pretty, you know how it is you buy something really nice and then you don't want to use it lol! 

The base layer is from the Aster collection and I loved the image of the bird in the bird house down in the bottom corner so I decided to make a feature of him but bringing him in as a songbird! I know he's not but all birds sing right?! Which reminds me, we have had a beautiful Robin coming in our garden the past few weeks and he sings away merrily, so beautiful.

Right back to my card! The other papers I used are from a Winter's theme collection and I chose a very subtle Cream with a hint of White on it, you can't see it now I have altered it but it is pretty. I cut this to size and ripped it diagonally, I placed it in a  musical notes embossing folder then inked the embossed areas and edges with Black Soot to make them stand out a bit more, I placed this up the top corner so my bird image showed in the bottom.

I looked through my many die cuts to see what I could add and found this gate and fence, I thought it would be nice to open the gate to see the bird so I added this across the bottom of my card.

I found a curved flourish die cut so I trimmed this down and placed it along the top right corner.

I had in my stash a brass metal bird on a perch that looked very similar to the bird in my image so I thought it would go well with my card, I tied a piece of Garden twine on it and attached it to my card over the musical notes.

Among my Aster papers there was a sheet with different sentiments, I chose 'Life is Good', I inked round the edge with Brushed Cordroy and put a foam pad either end then placed it over the twine holding the brass bird in the top left corner, I curled this corner over a little just for added interest and it showed the purple on the other side of my paper so it brought out the Purple Aster that is behind the bird box.

I wanted something to go along the edge of the music paper and found some little swirls that I had die cut out of some card I had coloured with different inks, all neutral shades so I placed these along the edge.

I wanted to add some flowers so I added some garden twine that I had made a bow out of then placed three small paper flowers over the top, this finished my card.

Items Used:

Heartfelt Creations Aster Collection 12X12 Paper Pad

Winter Themed 12X12 Paper Pad (The Range)

Crafters Companion Embossilicious Embossing Folder Musical Notes

Spellbinders Shapeabilities Dies Gilded Gate

Spellbinders Shapeabilities Dies Wrought Iron (Fence)

Garden Twine

Craft Paper Flowers

Brass Bird on Perch (bought from a Craft Fair)

Tattered Lace Floral Edge (Free with Magazine)

Tim Holtz Distress Inks Black Soot & Brushed Cordroy

I am entering this into  http://frillyandfunkie.blogspot.ca/2016/01/sing-sing-sing.html

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx

It's a Cat's Life

Hello my crafting friends, good to have you pop by today, it really is much appreciated. I do hope you are finding plenty of crafting time, do please leave a link of your blog if you have one so I may return the favour.

This is a card I made for Sheena's recent stencil shows on Create and Craft, I just love the cats, being a cat lover I had to give these a go.

The big chair is a stencil in itself so I coloured through the stencil with Distress Inks then coloured round the chair with different colours for contrast.

As one of my cats love to lie on the back of our arm chair that was where I was going to put one of these cute guys. I stamped it in position using a dark Brown DI  and coloured it in with further Distress Inks making sure I put the darker colour over where the stencil of the Chair might show through, I think I managed to hide the colours lol! 

I stamped the second cat as if he was scratching up the chair arm, you get the scratch marks in with the stencil so I coloured them in a Dark Grey and coloured the cat as the same as the first one.

I then made a sentiment using the same inks and one of the sayings on the stamp set. I matted the whole card up with Red card then matted it onto the base card. A fabulous card for cat lovers don't you think?

Items used:

Basic White card

Red Card

Sheena Douglass Stencil The Cat's Meow

Sheena Douglass Stamp What Fish? 

Tim Holtz Distress Inks Squeezed Lemonade, Fired Brick, Bundled Sage, Tumbled Glass, Ground Espresso, Dried Marmalade.

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx

Google Account?

Hello my crafting friends, just a note to remind some of you about the changes to Google and blogger, I sure do hope you can still find me and visit as I love to hear from you all and read your comments.

Hi everyone, have you noticed a drop in your blog followers? 

Or are you missing posts on blogs you followed?

  I came across a post with 

the following information, which I wanted to share with you!

This explains a lot!

In 2011, we announced the retirement of Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites. We made an exception for Blogger to give readers an easy way to follow blogs using a variety of accounts. Yet over time, we’ve seen that most people sign into Friend Connect with a Google Account. So, in an effort to streamline, in the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes that will eventually require readers to have a Google Account to sign into Friend Connect and follow blogs. 

As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other Open Id providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.

We encourage you to tell affected readers (perhaps via a blog post), that if they use a non-Google Account to follow your blog, they need to sign up for a Google Account, and re-follow your blog. With a Google Account, they’ll get blogs added to their Reading List, making it easier for them to see the latest posts and activity of the blogs they follow.

We know how important followers are to all bloggers, but we believe this change will improve the experience for both you and your readers.

Posted by Michael Goddard, Software Engineer

Why they have to change things I will never know, it was working perfectly before, how can it be better when we lose followers and are unable to find certain blogs? I do hope you all manage to find me, I know I have lost a few blogs that even I cannot find.

Good Luck everyone

Love & hugs

Jacquie J xxx

Noel

Hello my crafting friends, so good of you to come and join me today. I make no apologies for more Christmas cards as I have decided to start making this years now so there will be quite a few to come throughout the year lol!

Now I may be making this years cards now but todays' post is the Christmas card I made for my Father-in-Law, this was his first Christmas since my Mother-in-Law died earlier in the year and she always loved my cards but I did not wish to make anything to fancy but it had to look a bit masculine so I went along with Sheena's Noel stamp and created this...

I started by inking up the background using DI Chipped Sapphire and Scattered Straw onto White hammered Card mixing together a little where they meet. I then stamped the Noel stamp on the bottom and added a little sparkle to the star and sky. 

To finish the card I matted it up onto Gold texture card and the basic White card. 

Items Used:

White Base Card

White Hammer Card

Gold Texture Card

Sheena Douglass Little Bit Festive Noel Stamp

Tim Holtz Distress Inks Chipped Sapphire & Scattered Straw

Stazon Ink Pad Black

Glue Pen

Art Deco Glamour Dust

Daughter & Sons' Christmas Cards

Hello my crafting friends, hope this finds you all well? I promised last week that I would show the Christmas cards I made for my Son & Daughter, sorry a bit delayed but here they are.

For my son's card I used some of the shaving foam technique for a background using Purple Aquatints and printed off one of the Christmas images from the House Mouse CD Collection along with the sentiment. I added the die cut 'Son' that was cut out of Red miri card.

 

For my Daughter's card I printed off an image from the House Mouse CD Collection along with a backing paper and sentiment to match, I covered the backing paper with a self adhesive sheet and coated it with Micro beads before matting it up onto Red miri card then added the word 'Daughter' which was also cut out of Red miri card.

Items Used:

Basic White and red card stock

Joanna Sheen House Mouse Triple CD Collection

Red Miri Card

Aquatints Purple

Joanna Sheen Signature Dies Son & Daughter

Shaving Foam

Creative Expressions Micro Beads

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx

Snowy Victorian Park

Hello and a Very Happy New Year to ALL my crafting friends so good to have you visit me today, I do hope you have had enjoyable festivities over the last week or two. I certainly have, such a shame its getting near to returning back to work lol! I think we need another week off to relax now!

Its a bit late I know but our Sheena is on Create and Craft today at 2pm and 6pm showing some more of the last stencils and aquatints so there will be some fabulous demos I have no doubt. 

I made three more cards for her including this one, which is my favourite. I had to do a snowy scene being Christmas but glad we don't have scenes like this just yet!

 For the main card I used a basic White card base and matted up with some Black card.

For the image itself I started with a piece of White card and  inked it up with DI Pumice Stone and Hickory Smoke, blending together all over the card. I then added a few water drops  to make it look like snow in the background.

On the right of the card I stamped the Christmas Tree, coloured it in slightly with DI Forest Moss then added the snow on the branches with a Snow Writer. I then got my stencil Victorian Park and placed the railings in front of my tree and inked through with my Versamark Ink Pad then heat embossed with Black embossing powder, this gave the railings a shine that looked like painted metal. I then moved the stencil across to the middle and using the cobbled stones part of the stencil inked through with Pumice Stone and Brushed Cordroy giving some definition to the cobblestones, on the left side of the card I inked through the Lamp-post with my Versamark and heat embossed it with Black embossing powder. I then faux bleached out the light in the Lamp-post by painting over with just water and blotting it with kitchen towel, this removes most of the ink in the background, I also added some rays from the light by the same method of painting on with water and blotting with kitchen towel. Using a Bright Yellow Aqua marker I painted in the light.

I wanted some trees in the background, just a shadow  to give the illusion of depth so I second stamped the top of the trees from Country Christmas stamp set, I also turned the stamp round and second stamped them by the side of the lamp-post to give the effect of bushes. By second stamping I mean ink your stamp up as you normally would, I used Black Ink, then stamp it onto some scrap paper then stamp again on to your image where you want the stamp to go, its called second stamping as you are using the ink on the stamp a second time but it comes out a little faded and not as dominant as the first stamping. I hope this makes sense to those who have not done this before? I was more than happy with the results this gave.

With my Snow Writer I squeezed some onto my glass mat and using a paintbrush I painted over the railings, lamp-post and the cobbled stones, painting more along the edge of the railings and by the lamp-post, the ink from the cobbled stones actually blended a little with the snow which made it look more realistic!

I then used a little White Acrylic paint and using an old toothbrush splattered it all over the card to give the effect of falling snow. Make sure you do this in a box or some other sort of cover so you don't get paint over everything lol!

To finish the card  I made a sentiment using the same colour background, heat embossed the sentiment and splattered some Acrylic paint as snow over the top, matted it onto some Black card then placed it onto my card as seen.

Items Used:

Sheena Douglass White Stamping Card

Sheena Douglass Black card

Sheena Douglass Stencil Victorian Park

Sheena Douglass A little Bit Festive Country Christmas Stamps (Tree tops)

Creative Expressions Create a Scene Stamps, Designed by Sheena Douglass Christmas( Christmas Tree)

Creative Expressions Create a Scene Stamps, designed by Sheena Douglass Vintage Christmas (Sentiment)

Tim Holtz Distress Inks Pumice Stone, Hickory Smoke, Forest Moss and Brushed Cordroy.

Versamark Ink Pad

Deco Art Snow Writer 

Papermania Black Embossing Powder

Aqua Markers Sunflower Yellow

Acrylic Paint White

I am entering this into Anything But Cute You Got mail Challenge

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx