The Pheonix

Morning crafters, hope this finds you all well. It has been a lovely weekend weather wise but I will be glad when all the rain stops, we have been lucky here, no where as bad as down South West, I do feel for them.

Well I planned to have a good play day Saturday being as I had the house to myself but things never go as they are planned do they? By the time I had been the stables (to collect hay & straw for my Rabbits), sorted the mud dip in the front drive, getting so bad my son was having trouble getting up the drive so I dug it a little then put some shingle on top, hopefully that will help, answered everyone's posts on the blog, then started to tidy up the house a bit, had to clear some damp patches in my Sons bedroom, he is allergic to mold, fungus and dust (like my Mom) and it has started to affect him badly so out comes the bleach today, so by the time I did all that it was getting on for 4 pm so not much play time at all!! Sunday was cleaning our rabbits and cooking, I did have time for a little play but I am counting down the days till next week, half term so a week off work and I plan to PLAY!

Anyhow, todays card is one I did on Friday, Sweet Poppy Stencils bought out The Phoenix which is gorgeous, I have not seen it anywhere else so yes I had to buy it! I tried various combinations of  media to colour the stencil and found the best result was with Tim Holtz Distress Inks! I used Squeezed Lemonade, Fired Brick and Dried Marigold then heat embossed with Heat it Up! Clear Embossing Powder.

I cut round the image with SB Grand Decorative Ovals using the second largest die and inked round the die with TH Dried Marigold.

Now the base card was a sheet of Orange card from the Lidls card, on top of that is Creative Expressions Foundation Card Burgundy followed by Black Velvet Self Adhesive Paper, which was very old stash, I embossed this with Embossilicious Folder Regency Swirls, unfortunately the photos do not show this up. I wrapped a piece of Orange ribbon around the base of the Black Velvet before attaching it to the base card. I attached the image to the card and stamped my sentiment from Creative Expressions Unmounted Stamps- Classic Sentiments with TH Black Soot then die cut with SB Fancy Framed Tags Two, inked through the die with TH Dried Marigold and attached this onto the card on top of the ribbon.

There you have the finished card, this did take me around 3-4 hours to do but that was also playing with various mediums through the stencil to see which looked best. I do plan on having a go with Gilding Flakes when I get some more glue!

The card dimensions are 17 X 24 cm.

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx

Follow your Dreams

Morning Crafters, hope all is well with you and that you all are enjoying your weekend.

I had another play in the week, this time the Sheena way! I am using one of my NEW Embossing folders!!!  I finally got the time to have a play so yes I had to use one as they have been sitting there looking at me since they arrived the other week!

For the base card I used Crafters Companion Centura Pearl card, I ran a sheet of Creative Expressions Foundation Card Custard through the E-Bosser with Sheena Douglass Embossing Folder Curly Swirly, inked around the edge with TH Distress Ink Antique Linen and matted this onto the base card. 

Using the back of more CC Centura Pearl card I inked randomly with Tim Holtz Distress Inks Seedless Preserves, Antique Linen and Bundled Sage then embossed this with Sheena Douglass Embossing Folder Flying Beauties, I inked over the top of the embossed bit lightly with TH Black Soot inking all around the edge too. This made the embossed image pop out, it was hard not to get any ink on the card itself but I don't think it ruined it. I sprinkled a little water over the card to give it an effect but did not do too well with that lol!

I wanted to make the Dragonfly and larger Butterfly stand out a bit more so I painted them with diluted Cosmic Shimmer Mica Powders, this gave a nice sheen to them, forgive the pun!!! I was happy with this so did no more than to mat it up onto some Crafters Companion Centura Pearl Pastel Card Lilac and attach it at an angle on the front of my base card.

Using more of the CC Centura Pastel Lilac card I stamped my sentiment from Creative Expressions Unmounted Stamps Treasured Memories with TH Black Soot and die cut with SB Nestabilities Standard Circles Large, I placed this on the front of the card as seen and there you have the finished card.

This was quite a quick card to do though a little messy!

Card dimensions are 5 X 7".

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx

Friends Forever

Morning crafters hope this finds you all well? I do appreciate you looking and commenting on my blog, its good to know that you have taken time out of your busy schedule just for me so a BIG THANK YOU  to each and every one of you.

For todays card, as some of you will notice, I have had a go at copying one of Sue Wilson's designs, I so loved this card when I saw it on Sue's blog last week I just had to have a go, Sorry Sue! I do not think I did it justice like Sue, well not got the experience or all of the items but I made the most of what I had and I am pleased with the result. Sorry for the essay everybody!!

I started with some Crafters Companion Centura Pearl card for the base, with more of the card I cut to size and pierced around the edge, now I do not have a piercing ruler but have decided I must get one as its so messy without lol! I matted this onto my base card followed by a piece of Purple card from Hunkydory Purple Butterfly card kit, unfortunately it is hidden, you might just catch a glimpse of it in the top left corner but you can see the colour by the center of the flowers!!!

Using more Centura Pearl card I stamped my sentiment from Creative Expressions Unmounted Stamps-Treasured Memories using Tim Holtz Distress Ink Seedless Preserves then cut an aperture with SB Nestabilities Lables Eighteen and inked the die with the same Distress Ink.

With another piece of Centura card I stamped the Cherry Blossom from Kanban Crafts Clear Stamps using Seedless Preserves again, there was no name to these but they were part of a Chinese set,  I then put a Double Adhesive sheet over the top and coated it in Creative Expressions Glitter Jewel's Diamond Sprinkles, I ran this through the embossing machine using Embossalicious Embossing Folder Regency Swirls, then die cut the aperture using the  larger die from SB Lables Eighteen.  With the piece of White card I die cut the sentiment out of I glued around the edge of the aperture and coated with Creative Expressions Glitter Jewel's Iced Snow then taped it onto the back of the glittered top card so the smaller aperture showed through the larger one. I placed the sentiment onto the Purple card in the position I wanted it and using foam pads on the back of the top card, I attached this onto the Purple card over the sentiment, I hope all this makes sense?

Out of more Purple card I die cut some flowers from SB Die-lites Blooms Four, heat embossed the edge of each petal with Papermania Embossing Powder Seafoam White, stuck three petals together to form one flower then went down in size for the other two. using SB Die-lites Sprigs I die cut two leaves with CC Centura Pearl card.

I made a messy bow, quite a small messy bow, out of Lilac American Binding Ribbon, attached this to the card as seen and placed the larger flower on top, with the other flowers around the aperture of the card. I placed each of the leaves under either side of the bow, added some Habico Self Adhesive Pearls on the right and there you have the finished card. 

I must say this took quite along time to do, longer than I expected but it was worth it.

Dimensions of the card are 7 X 5".

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx

Balloon Ride

Morning crafters, hope you are all well and have had a good weekend. I do feel for those in the floods, my Daughter in Cornwall has said it has not stopped raining since Friday, they were okay where they were though, the camping was in wooden huts not tents, so they were not too bad and they had access to a hot tub! Just as well really lol! They had a good time and that was what counts.

For todays card I thought I would have a play, a little Sheena play! Did not turn out as I hoped but hey it's only a piece of card right? lol!

For the base card I used Crafters Companion Centura Pearl card. To start with I cut a piece of centura card and used the back to stamp on, I tore a sheet of White paper to look like hills and stamped on the card with Tim Holtz Distress Ink Crushed Olive, then I did the same for the sky trying to rip the paper to form clouds and I inked these up with T.H. Tumbled Glass.

Along the bottom of the card I stamped the grasses from Sheena Douglass Little Bit Scenic Silhouette Garden using TH Black Soot, then stamped the trees from Katy Sue Designs Silhouette Stamps-Trees & Flowers again using TH Black Soot. I inked around the edge of the card also with Black Soot. I then matted & layered this onto Black card and then onto the base card.

Using Cheery Lynn Die 'Hot Air Balloon' I die cut the balloon, then realized it die cut all the pieces out so it just left the frame which I coloured Blue & Yellow and the basket Brown using Promarkers. I then embossed the die and cut it out so I had a base to glue the die bit to, I coloured this in Red Promarker so it stood out. I quite liked the look of this as it made it look a little 3D. I placed this on the card as seen, now I am not sure whether it looks right, is the balloon too big? What do you think?  Anyhow I decided to leave it and so die cut the sentiment out with SB Die-lites Petite Labels One and inked through with TH Tumbled glass, this then looked like a cloud, rather a big one but still a cloud lol!

There you have the finished card, dimensions are 5 X 7". See you Thursday.

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx

Vintage car

Morning my crafting friends, hope this finds you all well and safe, hope no one is affected by all the floods everywhere, if you are my heart goes out to you.

I have been so busy of late that I have only just managed to get round to your posts this weekend, hope I have not missed anyone out, I love looking at all your beautiful creations. Thank you for all the lovely comments on my Son's birthday card, to be honest when I made it I had forgotten about it being Chinese New Year, my son, like me, has always loved anything Oriental, just love their style. In my garden I have my collection of Acers and Chinese ornaments I just love them. It was fitting that this year his birthday was the day before Chinese new Year and Hazel, I don't think he was born on a Chinese New Year, would have to work that one out to see lol!

We went to Thailand 7 years ago (for his father's funeral) that was around the Chinese New Year and it was lovely to see some of the celebrations, we would have liked to see the Chinese celebrations in China Town but it would have been such an expense to get there and back in taxi's at night, we did look around the Chinese town in the day time though whilst they were setting up the celebrations, I am sure they would have been spectacular.

Anyhow, today's card was the one I made for my Daughter's boyfriend who is 30 today. They have gone away for the weekend and his Family have come down from Manchester to spend the time with them, its only a camp site about 10 miles from where they live but its time away from home, I am sure they will have a fabulous time. We could not make it as it's such a long way to travel to Cornwall just for a couple of days.

The base card was one from an old Kanban card kit I had, I inked the die SP Imperial Gold Nestabilities Gold Ivy with Tim Holtz Distress Ink Crushed Olive and die cut a piece of light Green card from Lidl's, I matted this with a piece of darker Green card, cut with the smaller die from the set and matted this on the top, I then added the image, which is from the same Kanban card kit, in the center. The sentiment and tag was from the kit too. I did not put 30 on the front, you know how sensitive some Men get about their age so I put a special 30th verse inside for him instead lol!.

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx