Birthday Poppies

 

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Hello fellow bloggers.

This time I am having a break from Christmas cards, and

have a birthday card instead. Strangely though I seem to

still be in Christmas colours mode.

The lovely image is a digital stamp, and is 

coloured as always with Promarkers.

Challenges I would like to enter:-

Beccy's Place - 'Anything Goes' (must use Beccy's image)

Crafty Catz #530 - 'Anything Goes' (with optional twist 'Say it with Flowers)

Passion For Promarkers #572 - 'Add A Sentiment'

The Crafter's Cafe #256 - 'Anything Goes'

Image - Beccy's Place Poppies free digital stamp (many thanks Beccy)

Colouring - Promarkers

Die - Spellbinders Floral Ovals

Punch - Martha Stewart Butterfly Trio

Sentiment - Timeless Images Vertical Happy Birthday

I hope you are all staying safe in these uncertain times, and your Christmas preparations are progressing well.

Until next time, thank you for visiting.

Hugs,

Jennifer.  x

Christmas Lamp

 

Good evening.

Once again, the lovely Beccy at Beccy's Place is running her 'Month of Holiday 

Cards' challenge. This is the 8th year, and runs all of November, with a different 

challenge each day. It is a great way to increase one's stash of Christmas cards, 

and Beccy is very generous with her digi prizes.

A few days ago the challenge was to create a card using up some of the 

pile of 'scraps' we crafters tend to accumulate. I decided to use scraps 

of 3 different papers from a 12 x 12 stack I bought 'yonks' ago. I also

used a cute little scalloped punch which I have also had for 

'yonks' and have only used twice...MY BAD!

It took me ages to carefully align the squares, so my finished base

would be perfect rectangle, but in the end I was quite happy

with the result.

A close up of the beautiful image, one of Beccy's, which was a joy to

colour with (as usual) my Promarkers.

My greeting is from a sheet of mixed font greetings.

  The matt and font are very shiny gold, although they look black.

Challenges I would like to enter:-

Beccy's Place - Day 18 'Scraps'

Colour Crazy #46 - Anything Goes (must be hand coloured)

I Love Promarkers #423 - Anything Goes (with option of 3 layers)

Stinkin' Inkers - Quilting  SPECIAL AWARD

Try It On Tuesday - Traditional Christmas Colours

Image - Beccy's Place 'Christmas Lamp'

Colouring - Promarkers

Dies - Spellbinders Floral Ovals; Classic Ovals

Punch - X-Cut Small Scalloped Square

Paper - Franchville 12 x 12 Stack Christmas Basics

Greeting - Art Stamps Australia

I must be off to bed as we have a big day planned tomorrow, entertaining visitors we have not seen since last Christmas.

Please stay safe in these difficult times, and until next time, thank you for visiting.

Hugs,

Jennifer.  xx

Watchful Seagull

Gosh, it is June already...the weeks just seem to rush by.

My brother celebrates another birthday soon, but as he does not

read my blog it is safe to show you the card I made for him.

I bought a lovely clear stamp set about 2 months ago, and this image and

sentiment are included in it. That fabulous wood-grain background is

stamped on kraft cardstock with Walnut Stain distress ink, then trimmed 

down to fit the card front. I bought the stamp about 2 years ago, and this 

is the 1st time I have used it...yes, I am hanging my head with shame!!!

A closer look at the image which was a joy to colour. As usual

I used my Promarkers.

My double Figure Eight knot was tied with kitchen twine.

This is one of several sentiments in the stamp set.

Challenges I would like to enter

2 Crafty Critter Crazies #39 - 'Anything Goes' (MUST have critter)

Beccy's Place - 'Anything Goes' (MUST use a Beccy's image)

Crafty Animals #39 - 'Anything Goes' (MUST have animal)

Creative Inspirations - 'Let's Hear It For The Boys'

Cut It Up #201 - 'Boys Will Be Boys'

Little Red Wagon #552 - 'Patterned Paper or Make Your Own'

Moving Along With The Times #119 - 'Things With Wings'

Papercraft Business #30 - 'Fathers' Day/Masculine'

Passion For Promarkers #545 - 'A Celebration' (brother's birthday) TOP 5

Sweet Stampers ##44 - 'Animals/Birds'  DT Favourite

Unicorn ##55 - 'Masculine' TOP 5

Image and Sentiment - Beccy's Place Smooth Seas

Colouring - Promarkers

Dies - Spellbinders Classic Rectangles (cut down several times to 're-size')

Background - Stampin' Up Hardwood 

Ink - Distress Walnut Stain

On this very chilly, wet evening I say "thank you for visiting, and please stay safe in these troubled times".

Jennifer.  xx

Cherry Blossom

Happy Mothers Day to all the Mums. I hope you are all enjoying

your special day, despite the social distancing and lockdown restrictions.

Globally our lives have been drastically altered because of this

awful COVID-19, and we have all had to adapt to the major changes.

Of course one of the 'victims' have been our regular Craft Shows, so the 

organisers of one of the series here in 'Oz' decided to hold the shows online.

Many of the exhibitors offered 'show specials', just like during the real shows. 

Many of you may recognise the name Beccy's Place, as Beccy offers lovely

prizes for many challenge blogs. Beccy lives here in Australia, in Queensland,

and throughout the 1st virtual show, she offered fab 'Beat The Clock' specials.

One of Beccy's deals was this gorgeous stamp and die set which she offered

as a bundle. There are quite a few other stamps and dies in the 

Cherry Blossom set.

A closer look at the beautiful blossoms, coloured of course with

my trusty Promarkers. That ribbon looks a 'peachy' pink, but

IRL it is exactly the same pink as the background paper.

Challenges I would like to enter

Beccy's Place - 'Anything Goes' must use Beccy's image
Cardz 4 Galz #121 - 'Birthday'
Crafty Friends #135 - 'Flowers'
Creations In Pink #21 - 'Anything Goes with Mainly Pink'
Moving Along With The Times #118 - 'Flowers'
Passion For Promarkers #541 - 'In The Pink'  TOP 5
The Crafting Challenge - 'Flowers'
The Flower Challenge #44 - 'Monochrome'

Image - Beccy's Place Cherry Blossom
Colouring - Promarkers
Dies - Beccy's Place Cherry Blossom; Cheery Lynn Anastasia Border; Spellbinders Scalloped Rectangle
Sentiment - Stampin' Up
Ribbon is from my junk stash

I must go and take the washing off the line, and feed our fur-baby...Mothers Day or not, the chores do not wait, do they.

Until next time, thank you for visiting,
Hugs (no contact, of course),
Jennifer.  xx

Christmas Lantern

Good evening fellow crafters. 

I hope you all had a great weekend with plenty of crafting time.

Although we are almost half way through autumn in Australia, our region

has not had any days for months where the maximum temperature has not

been in the 30s, and for weeks now the humidity has been unbearably

high (75-98%). However, yesterday and today have been in the 

mid 20s, and I am feeling much happier. (I love winter).

Today I completed another Christmas card to add to my collection. I love this

rather vintage looking lantern, and designed my card to have a vintage style.

A closer look at the lantern, and the Christmas flowers and foliage, 

coloured as usual with my Promarkers.

Inside my card is fairly simple and co-ordinates with the front.

Challenges

ABC Christmas - ' 'G' for Glitter' (Stickles Platinum on scallops)

Beccy's Place - 'Anything Goes, using a Beccy's Place image'

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas #71- 'Seeing Red'

Crimbo Crackers #61 - 'Anything Goes'

Christmas Fun - 'For A Man/Anything Goes' TOP 3

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long #5 - 'Anything Goes/Lots of Layers' TOP 3

Jingle Belles - 'Spirit of Christmas Past'

Image - Beccy's Place Christmas Lantern  (freebie-thank you Beccy)

Colouring - Promarkers

Papers - Kaisercraft Christmas Carol Collection

Dies - Spellbinders Classic and Scalloped Circles

Ink (sponging) - Tim Holtz DI Antique Linen

Ribbon and peel-off sticker from my junk stash

John has almost finished with his last student for the evening, so I must go and finish preparing dinner...we are have one of our favourites...curried tuna...yum!

Thank you for visiting, and I will have another card for you tomorrow. Until then, "happy crafting".

Hugs, 

Jennifer. x

Candy Canes

At Crafty Little Fairies, the Pink Fairy team have a new challenge for you, and it is one I 

sure you will love, espcially at this time of the year:-

'CANDY STRIPES'

Let's see what you can create with gorgeous papers and images. You can use any image

you like, stamped or a digi, but you must use an image. 

Our wonderful sponsor this week is

I have used a lovely digi image, Candy Canes, by Beccy Muir, at Beccy's Place, and the

paper is from last year's Graphic 45 Christmas collection. The corner embellishments are

the negatives from a Cherry Lynn Lattice die.

A closer look at the image, coloured as usual with Promarkers. When you purchase

the digi image, you also get a pre-coloured image which is handy if

you need to make a card in a hurry.

Inside my card, with a large space to write a personal message.

Challenges

Songbird #28 - 'Die Another Day'

Whoopsi Daisy - 'Christmas Using Traditional Colours'

Image - Beccy's Place digi Candy Canes

Colouring - Promarkers

Sentiment - Lili of the Valley

Paper - Graphic 45

Dies - Spellbinders Classic and Decorative  Labels Eight, Classic and Scalloped Circles; Cheery Lynn

For a chance to win a lovely prize, why not visit us at Crafty Little Fairies, and enter our 'Candy Stripes' challenge.

I will be back shortly with another 'Candy Stripes' card, so until then....

Hugs, 

Jennifer. x

On The First Day of Christmas...

Hello fellow crafters,
As entertainers, John and I used to love doing shows at Christmas time, and always included 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' in our programme. Whenever possible, we never did it 'straight', instead we would involve the people in the audience, and 'play around' with it considerably, thus ensuring great fun for them and us.

The large red panel has been embossed with a Stampin' Up folder, the leaves punched with Martha Stewart's 'Branch', and the stamped image cut with Spellbinders 'Classic Ovals'.

This cute image (coloured with Promarkers) is 'Partridge in a Pear Tree', a freebie digital stamp from Beccy's Place (her badge is on my sidebar).  Thank you very much, Beccy.

Inside the card co-ordinates with the front. I used Marianne dies for the greetings panel, and the poinsettia.

I would like to enter the following challenges -
                                                       

Ruby's Rainbow #41 - 'Birds'

Crafty Sentiments - 'Christmas'

Beccy's Place - 'Use one of Beccy's images'

I Love Promarkers #143 - 'Christmas Trees'

Penny's Paper Crafty #102 - 'Anything Goes'

Whimsy #53 - 'Traditional Christmas Colouring'

                                               

Just a short post tonight friends, as we have to be up early tomorrow to drive to Newcastle through peak hour traffic for John's appointment with a Consultant.

Thank you for visiting, and also for your lovely comments.

Hugs,

Jennifer. x

Dancing Piggy

Hello fellow crafters,
To say the weather is strange would be an understatement! Last Friday, we had a sweltering 36 degrees C, but yesterday and today have been FREEZING - 10 degrees without the icy wind contributing to the chill factor. We have had the fire blazing, and are dressed in multi-layers of clothing. Many parts of eastern Australia are blanketed in snow for the first time in more than a century. We have also had dangerous gale-force winds, but so far we have not had any of our hundreds of huge trees on our property blow over.

I have not been able to do too much crafting this week, as I had to have a cortisone injection into a tendon in the palm of my hand on Tuesday. I have had a 'Trigger Finger' on my right hand for about 6 months, whereby my finger 'locks' if I bend it (a tad painful), and since the injection it is very bruised and sore. Hopefully, the condition will improve somewhat, or surgery is the only other course of action.

This happy little girl is Party Pig, a Beccy's Place digi stamp. The DP is DCWV The Glitter Stack. I bought the felt flower at a craft fair in London 2 years ago in a packet of 5 (no name). IRL, it is very similar in colour to the purple cardstock with which I have layered everything, so I don't know why it looks so different in the photo. I printed 'Celebrate' on my computer, and again the colour is more purple IRL. The font is Curlz.

I coloured Party Pig with my Promarkers, and used 'Star Dust' Stickles on her beads and party hat.

The card base is a standard opening card. The hat is a Cuttlebug die, the Double Loop border is a Martha Stewart border punch, and the squares were cut with a Spellbinders Classic Square die.

I would like to enter the following challenges-

Crafty Boots - 'Use Three of Something' (3 Spellbinder dies, and 3 swirl offcuts inside card)

Di's Digi Downloads - 'Animals Acting Like Humans' 

Papertake Weekly - 'All Creatures Great and Small'

Beccy's Place - 'Use Beccy's Place Image'

Until next time, thank you for visiting, and welcome to my new follower.

Hugs,

Jennifer.

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