A Very Special First Birthday

Hello fellow crafters,
A baby's first birthday is always special, but I believe sometimes there is a reason for one to be extra special, and I have made this Fun Fold Card to celebrate one such occasion.

If you have been reading my blog since it began in April, you may remember several posts about a dear little baby boy John and I baby-sit on a regular basis. (John calls him "Tiger", because he is such a little fighter). He has had an incredibly difficult start in life, having had to undergo major heart surgery when 6 months old, which was followed by several serious complications in the ensuing 5 months. In a few weeks time he will celebrate his first birthday, and I finished this card for him last night.

His family don't look at my blog, as they are here at least weekly and see my crafty endeavours first hand, so it is safe to post it now, as I wish to enter it into several challenges.

The card is larger than those I usually make - A5 - thus giving me plenty of room to 'play'.

Isn't this resin bear the cutest little chap. I found him 8 years ago at Esher, at my first ever craft show, while on a visit to London. I bought 2 boy bears, and a cat sitting on a brick wall, but could not bear (ha ha, pardon my pun) to part with them, as I loved them so much. I think however, I have found an occasion special enough to use one of them.

Inside the card, showing where John and I will write our birthday greetings to this dear little boy.

I 'flipped' the image, and 'fussy-cut' a portion of it for the left-hand panel. The image, coloured with Promarkers, was a freebie digital stamp by Beccy Muir at Beccy's Place. Thank you Beccy. I found her blog a couple of weeks ago, and she has lots of lovely images for sale in her shop, including this little cutie.

For the 'detail label' on the back of the card, I used the second smallest die in my new SB 'Floral Ovals'.  The tiny cut-outs are stars, and some of you may have noticed, I glittered a few of them and attached them to the main image panel on the front of the card.

Challenges I would like to enter are -

          Use It Tuesday #40 - 'Use Your Scraps' (yellow backing card, 

                                             mini stars, white fence card, eyelets,)

          Daisy Doodles Creative #68 -'One For The Boys' (Digi)

          Cute Card Thursday #236 - 'Feature Letters/Numbers'      

          Pennies Paper Crafty #95 - 'More Than One Fold'  (Winner)

          Tammy's Scrappin Corner #29 - 'Kiddes Card'  (Top 3)
        Beccy's Place - 'Use One of Beccy's Images'

          Ready Teddy Go #14 - 'How Many Fingers?'
          Charisma Cardz #38 - 'For The Guys'

          My Mum's Craft Shop #76 - 'Stars'

          I Love Promarkers #136 - 'Male'

DP - DCWV  'Glittered Stack'
Alphabet Stamps - Hero Arts 'Balloon Alphas' (coloured with PMs & Stickles 'Stardust')
Dies - Marianne 'Fence & Birdhouse'; Spellbinders 'Floral Ovals' (back of card); Cuttlebug 'Party'
Glittered star (ex Christmas decoration), star eyelets, from my junk stash

Until next time, thank you for visiting and leaving your kind comments. Also, welcome to my new followers.
Hugs,
Jennifer. x

"Forever and Ever, Our Hearts Will Be True"

Hello fellow crafters,

While I was making this card, I found that I was singing the lovely old song "Forever and Ever, Our Hearts Will be True" over and over. September is always the most popular month in which to have a wedding here in Australia (although ours was in July), it being the first month of Spring.

I made this twisted easel card for Emily, a lovely young lady we have known since she was a little girl, and Phil, her bridegroom, who we have never met.

The card base and die-cuts are all white pearlised card. I cut the hearts with Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Hearts, sponged the edges with Versacube Petal Pink, then embossed them with Cuttlebug 'Birds and Swirls'. The scrolled border strips are cut with Cuttlebug 'Floral Borders', and softly sponged also. I used various Carl punches to cut the flowers and ferns, and placed a flat backed pearl in the centre of each flower.

I cut the die-cut for our personal message with Spellbinders Nestabilities 'Lacey Circles'.

I think I must have been having a 'senior moment' when I took the photos, because I didn't take a piccie of the card lying flat - the vertical portion at the back is also decorated - you can just see the tip of a flower peeking out. I present all my dimensional cards in clear acetate boxes, so when this card is flat, the entire 'front' is decorated as if it is a flat card. (I have not explained myself very articulately, but I am sure you will know what I am trying to say).

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges -

The Crafty Pad #189 - 'Inspired By a Song' (Forever and Ever) (Top 5)

The Squirrel and the Fox #27 - 'Celebrate the Occasion'

My Mum's Craft Shop #75 - 'Hearts and Flowers'

Little Claire's Designs #25 - 'Stand Up Straight'

Raise The Bar #112 - 'Damask or Swirls' (Winner)

Until next time, thank you for visiting,

Hugs,

Jennifer. x

Buon Viaggio!

Hello fellow crafters,
I know one shouldn't envy friends, but I do envy my friend, Margaret. On Saturday, she flies to Italy for a 3 week holiday. I enjoyed an all too brief visit to Italy in 1989...the weather was glorious, the countryside was beautiful, and the people were oh, so friendly. I have always wanted to return for a much longer time. Margaret has been before, and has been looking forward very much to a return visit.

This is the card I made to wish her a happy holiday, or more correctly 'Buon Viaggio'. It is very different to my usual style, and slightly reminiscent of my cards, many years ago.

Using black Archival ink, I stamped the main image onto 'Vanilla' Bazzill, masked her, then stamped various smaller stamps around her. I then randomly coloured 'highlights' with a white crayon. With 'Tattered Rose' distress ink, I sponged over her face, neck and chest, then sponged with 'Frayed Burlap' around the perimeters. A tissue was used to wipe over the entire surface, thus removing ink from the crayon. The sentiment is computer generated - 'Chopin Script' font.

The main image, and several of the smaller stamps are from a Non-Sequitor rubber plate. I bought it many years ago at Blade Rubber Stamps, during a visit to London. I have forgotten the name of the plate. The other stamps are nameless - I bought them in plain plastic bags at a craft show, also many years ago.

The inside of the card was decorated also using the wax resist technique.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenge-

                   Crafty Creations #188 - 'Around the World'

Thank you for visiting, and until next time,

Hugs,

Jennifer. x

Demonstration Rose

Hello fellow crafters,
As I mentioned in my previous post, I did a demonstration on making vellum flowers at the Stamp Camp/Retreat I attended last weekend. This was the card I made with the rose I created at the demonstration.

I used my Tim Holtz 'Tattered Florals' die to cut out the petals, and to give my rose a fuller look, I cut 2 of the largest flowers. The leaves are also vellum, cut with Spellbinder 'Foliage' die, and coloured with 'Crushed Olive' distress ink.

The petals are coloured with Adirondack 'Raisin', and the centre is Flower Soft 'Lemon'.

The inside of the card is decorated to co-ordinate with the front. I layered 2 Spellbinder Classic Scalloped Squares over the DP, and added a Memory Box 'Madera' corner die-cut. The gorgeous DP, was a fab '50% off' special on a bargain table at an art shop in Newcastle recently. I only bought a couple of sheets (A4), but wish I had bought more. It is by Cristina Re, and has the most luxurious texture. I was so pleased to find that the reverse side matched the colour of my rose perfectly..

I used Spellbinder 'Fleur de Lis', and Marianne dies for the card front. The sentiment is computer generated 'Brock' font.

I would like to enter my card in the following challenge -

             Daring Cardmakers - 'Vellum'

Until next time, thank you for visiting,

Hugs,

Jennifer. x

ATCs and More

Hello fellow crafters,
Sadly, my Stamp Camp/Retreat is over for another year. I look forward to it for months, and it feels as if we have barely settled in, and it is time to pack up and travel home. I know many of the other ladies feel the same.

The meals, prepared by Chef Mick, were as always, beautiful, and.....as always, I ate far too much.

Our instructor this year was the very talented Rachael Grieg, of Darkroom Door. We got very inky fingers, but it was such fun, and we learned a lot.

In my previous post I promised to show you some of the ATCs and other projects I had made for the weekend. I did 2 different styles of ATCs, as some people like 'pretty' styles, and others prefer a more grungy style. Below is a selection from the pile I made.

Unfortunately the photo above doesn't show the fact that I had embossed the majority of these ATCs with clear embossing powder. The brick wall card was put through a Tim Holtz embossing folder, swiped with Frayed Burlap distress ink, then clear embossed. The other cards were sponged with distress inks - Milled Lavender, Tattered Rose, Antique Linen, and Spiced Marmalade, then over-stamped. The tree and birds stamp is by Tim Holtz, while the flowers one is Hero Arts. 

The flower toppers are by Craftwork Cards, coloured with Promarkers; the middle card was embossed using 2 Cuttlebug folders - Swiss Dots and Argyle, then the raised Argyle side was swiped with Milled Lavender distress ink. The round flower stamp is from a very old Hero Arts set. For the 'quilted' cards I ruled squares, coloured them with Promarkers, then drew tiny flowers freehand. I pierced holes around the edges and drew faux stitching. I cut the scissors with a Marianne die.

This is a selection of the vellum flowers I made as samples for the demonstration I did at the Camp. Most are cut with different dies and punches, while some are cut freehand. They are coloured with various dye inks, either with single colours or blended on the flowers. The centres are Flower Soft.

These are the cards I made to thank Pat, Wilma, and Tara for all their hard work organising the Camp. (The photo which includes Tara's card was too blurred to publish). I also gave them a big box of Maltesers each. The toppers are by Craftwork Cards, coloured with Promarkers, and the DPs are First Edition 'Desert Bloom'.

This morning, one of my fur-babies, Pagliacci woke up with a closed eye, so off we went to the vet. The poor old boy (almost 14) has a huge ulcer on his cornea in one eye, and a small one on the other. Goodness knows how they occurred, but I have to put ointment in his eyes 4 or 5 times per day for 5 days. Oh dear, what fun I am in for - he is not known for his cooperative attitude.

As with previous Stamp Camps, we waste very little time sleeping, so I think it is time for me to try to catch up.

Until next time, thank you for looking,
Hugs, Jennifer. x

Stamp Camp and Demonstration Frenzy

Hello fellow crafters,
Spring is finally here! I love our huge Prunus tree in our back garden, but sadly, its beautiful blooms are so short-lived.

This is going to be the shortest post I have ever done, as I am running around like the Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland (it was the Rabbit wasn't it..."I'm late, I'm late" etc).

For this past week it has been a case of 'head down, and tail up', as early tomorrow morning I set off to my annual Stamp Camp/Retreat at a lovely resort hidden in the Watagan Mountains. This will be the 12th or 13th one I have been to...4 days of inkiness, laughter, workshops, friendship, and eating way, way too much. Just image...4 days of "15 minutes to lunch ladies"...."20 minutes to dinner ladies"...I know, I know, hard to take, but hey, someone has to do it!


I will show you the fruits of my week's labour next week - piles of ATCs, thank you cards for the organisers, and a box of vellum flowers (scroll down to my last post), at various stages of completion..."why"? I hear you ask...because I am doing a demonstration! I am excited and nervous at the same time.


We all laugh at each other when we arrive, as our craft boxes, cases, bags etc are huge, while our clothing and toiletries are crammed into 1 tiny bag.

I still have heaps of packing to do, plus domestic matters to attend to. I had to catch up on laundry chores today, as yesterday my washing machine went 'kaput'. Luckily our repair man was able to come today (we live in a rural area), and 20 minutes and $310 later, I had a working machine again.

I must apologise to my followers and the other bloggers I follow. I am way behind in looking at your gorgeous creations, and commenting - hopefully I will catch up next week.

Hugs,
Jennifer. x

Vellum Rose

Hello fellow crafters,
Wow, I'm on a roll - 2 posts in just over an hour, (although they appear on consecutive dates). As today is the first day of Spring, here in Australia, I thought it would be appropriate to post a 'spring-like' card. I made it yesterday, to say "goodbye" to the last day of winter.

I can't remember the last time I made a C6 sized card, but I did so with this one because of the size of the embossing folder. It is a Stampin' Up Sizzix one, "Framed Tulips', and you may recognise it from here. It belongs to my friend Margaret, who used it for the anniversary card she made for John and me. Last week when she was here, we swapped each other's embossing folders for the afternoon.
                         

I have always loved vellum, or more correctly, parchment paper. It is so versatile - it can be cut, punched, stamped, moulded, saturated, embossed (wet and dry), and coloured using varied mediums. Recently I have been experimenting with making my own flowers. The close up photo above shows the true colour more accurately than the top photo. I die-cut the vellum using Spellbinder 'Rose Creation', and coloured each petal with my aquabrush and Tim Holtz's 'Picked Raspberry' Distress Ink. When they were barely damp, I then moulded the petals. The stamens are Flower Soft, and the leaves are Spellbinder. The flourishes are Memory Box, and Marianne.

                         

Although the inside of the card looks 'fussy', it is quite simple, and didn't take very long to create.

Challenges I would like to enter are -

Party Time Tuesdays #83 - 'Anything Goes'

Love To Create #30 - 'Handmade Flowers'

Daring Cardmakers - 'Focus on Flowers'

Perfect Sentiments -'Anything Goes'

I didn't sleep very well last night, subsequently my yawns are becoming bigger by the minute, so I will say "goodnight", until next time.

Hugs,

Jennifer. x