Nothing to post

Well the title says it all! I have no cards to share with you today.

I intended doing birthday cards tonight for my little brother and also making something to post. Unfortunately this morning I woke up with conjunctivitis and can barely open my eye. Consequently I haven't done any crafting at all!!

All I have to show you is a Saturated Canary image I coloured earlier in the week. I will make it in to a card at some point but you'll have to forgive my lack of creativity tonight.

Hopefully I'll be able to see better tomorrow and make up for my shoddy behaviour tonight lol. I hope you can see fit to forgive me ;)

TTFN Jude x

Bits and Bobs

Good morning all, hope you are well and having a nice crafty week. I've been busy making birthday cards ready for little bro's birthday on Friday, but seen as how I can't show these yet, today will have to be a bits and pieces day lol.

Do you remember the 60th birthday card I made for my mum's friend? well it didn't fit in to a normal envelope, so I decorated a little box to put it in instead. It's just a 6x6 envelobox and I added some patterned paper to the bottom half and then a piece of self adhesive lace across the middle and finished it with a sentiment cut from a free papers booklet. I think it looks really pretty, what do you think?



The next thing I have to show you is the bag that I decorated while at the dabble day a couple of weekends ago.

 

 

I started with the plain cotton bag and then stamped white acrylic paint randomly over one side using a script stamp. It doesn't show up very well on the photo's and I did cover most of it up with my other stamping etc lol, but it is there. Then I used some die cut material circles to make some basic flowers and positioned these where I wanted them on the bag.

 

Once I was happy with the placement of those I stamped round them with circle and flower stamps, and I managed to find a little stamp that when used a few times looked like a fence, so I had to use this too. Lol. I painted in some stalks and stamped some leaves and then added the butterfly which was cut from a piece of canvas, that I painted bronze and then stamped with a black Stazon ink pad.

 

To finish the bag off  I stamped a sentiment on to another piece of cotton and then stitched it in the top corner. I'm really pleased with my bag :o)) I don't know if I'll use it or just leave it hanging on the peg board in my craft room though!

 

Anyway that's all from me today, thank you for stopping by and please leave a comment if you like, we really do love to read them.

 

See you soon

 

Jen

xx

 

Challenge 87 - Make it Manly

Good morning one and all.  It is Tuesday so it must be time for another challenge over at Anything Goes - http://anythingchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

This week the challenge is to produce something for those often difficult to please males in our lives.  We all know cards for men can be frustrating to get right so hopefully between us we can come up with some inspirational creations to keep us going.

My card for the challenge is a beach theme, which I thought suits all ages and genders.
 

I have water coloured the image which is by Michael Powell and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. 

 

 
I added a sentiment, ribbon and a couple of seaside embellishments from my stash.

 
The mats and layers are blue mirror card on core'dinations and the whole thing is on a DL card.  What do you think?

Please leave me a comment and pop over to the challenge to see the fabulous items my team mates have created.  I know I've picked up a few ideas I'll be trying out very soon. 
Join us in this fortnights challenge and post your cards at http://anythingchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/  Add a link to your blog and one of the team will leave you a comment in return. 

I hope you'll join in the fun!

TTFN Jude x

Beads, Beads and more Beads....

Good morning,

Yes I've been playing with the beads again lol. A lovely friend of my Mum's sent me a bag of different beads last week and I just had to make something with them. I started by making her a little thank you gift, but I'll share that later in the week. These ones I made for me :-))

 

I started with the little blue/grey long beads and went from there. They looked really nice with the gunmetal ones so I teamed with these and just a few silver ones from my stash and managed to make myself a full set.

I got a bracelet, necklace and earrings from the beads and still have some of the gunmetal ones left (and some others that were in the bag!)

 

The pendant is taken from other jewellery again. This was from an old bracelet of Jude's that had broken, so I took this bit off and used it as a pendant instead. I think it makes a lovely end to the chain, and is nothing like I have worn in the past so is very different for me, but I really like it.

 

Anyway that's all from me today, hope you like them too.

 

Take care

Jen

xx

60th Birthday Card

Good morning, hope you are all having a lovely weekend.

I have been playing with a new die and made a 60th birthday card for my Mum's friend. I've wanted a window die for a while and when we were out exploring new craft shops last week, I found this lovely little window die which opens!

I started with the window cut from white cardstock and then found a nice piece of floral paper which I then die cut in to a scalloped square and added to the white card blank. I cut a couple of pieces of mount board in a soft beige colour to make the lintel and window ledge.

This card gave me the opportunity to get out my little picket fence die again, I love this die I think it's so cute. I added this to either side of the window and then die cut some flowers from blue felt to tone with the background. I arranged these at the bottom of the card and added in some ready made flowers and leaves.

I then found a little butterfly in my stash that I had cut for something else and never used and I thought it would look lovely at the top of the window lol.

The hardest part was picking a sentiment for it. I had my two little design consultants with me for this stage! Or should that be my grandson's lol. and they couldn't agree on which one looked best! So in the end we agreed on the little blue one, which is part of the Hot Diggity collection.

I added the little 60 with silver peel offs and it was all done and dusted. A really pretty card for a change.

Anyway that's all from me today, enjoy what's left of the weekend.

See you soon
Jen
xx

Faux bleaching

Thanks for stopping by today.  Hope you are enjoying a crafty Saturday. 

I'm off on my first training session for the 5km Race for Life I was 'talked' into by my niece Kayleigh.  The race is in Clumber Park in June so we have a bit of time to prepare.  And we will need it!!

Anyway today's card uses the same techniques I used for my first ATC which I shared a little while ago (http://cardscakescraftsandcatastrophes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/my-first-atc.html)

 

I bleached out some of the ink from the hearts and flowers (using the faux bleaching technique) then recoloured them.

The ladybird is a small stamp I got free on a magazine.  I stamped the image 3 times on to red card and decoupaged it.  The top layer was then coated with Glossy Accents.

I cropped the piece, layered it on to kraft card, then cream before adding to a red card blank.  The ribbon is from my stash.

I think this technique could be used for so many different occasions. It would just be a case of swapping the colours and stamps used.  What do you think?

That's all from me today, TTFN Jude x

Everything's Peachy.....

Good morning all, yes I've used peach on a card! Now for anyone that knows me they know that peach is my least favourite colour of all lol. I've always thought that it was just so 'nothing' not orange, not cream, not pink just nothing lol. But then I came across some paper while I was having a tidy up in the craft room and I just had to make something with it.lol

So here it is - what do you think? I know I've covered a lot of it up but I just think this paper is really pretty.

I started with the paper which was from a craft mag, and then matted it on to some core-dinations card in a toning orangey colour. I inked all of the edges with Gathered Twigs distress ink and then stamped the script and patterns with Frayed Burlap distress ink.

I found the ribbon in a Paperchase set that I got at Christmas and it just happened to match lovely!

The little bird is one that I've had for ages and it was green! I covered it liberally with Treasure Gold and then highlighted some areas with a brown promarker. Then I gave it a coat of triple thick glaze to seal it.

 

The little tag is a metallic brad made by Dovecraft, tied on with some pale twine. I finished the card with a simple sentiment and the little letters punched from some small letter punches and then stuck on to small circles.I might just be changing my opinion on peach! lol.

 

Anyway that's all from me today, hope your all enjoying your week and looking forward to the weekend. See you soon, thanks for stopping by.

 

Jen

xx

21 again!

It's me again. Hope you are having a lovely Thursday.
Today I'll share the card I made for Matthew's 21st earlier in the week.

The background is a Scrapperdashery paper layered on to Chronology script and added to a kraft stepper card. The letters were cut from a Jillibean soup paper and remind me of old typewriter keys. I've almost used the whole sheet so can't use much more now unless I want to spell zgrfqwxykj!

The cardboard buttons are from the docraft spots and stripes capsule collection. I sanded these a little, rubbed walnut stain over and added a bit of gilt paste.

The numbers were a bit insipid so I darkened them with a cocoa promarker. I think they turned out ok.

I can't do any crafting today as I'm spending the day tidying my cave.  My lovely brother-in-law Alan put me some shelves up yesterday so I need to have a sort out and get things put away.  I strive to be more organised but I'm not naturally tidy so it's a tall order. Wish me luck.

TTFN Jude x

It's in the bag

Happy Wednesday peeps. Hope you've been having a crafty week so far. I'm not at work this week so been having a lovely time playing in the cave.
My post today is the bag I made at Saturdays dabble day. The very lovely Julie Atkinson shared her knowledge of mixing material paint and stamps to create a one of a kind bag.

We took circles of fabric over stamped with white acrylic and made some very basic flowers. These were placed on the bag and then we stamped in between with flowers and swirls.

The butterfly and moth were stamped with stazon on to canvas painted with bronze acrylic then cut out and glued to the bag.

The phrase at the top was stamped on to canvas again then cut up and glued on.

 

The bag has to be ironed to set the paint and then it becomes washable. I love the finished product and will certainly do another. Hope you like it too.

 

TTFN Jude x

Happy 21st birthday....

... to 'our' youngest. Good morning all, yes it's youngest stepson's 21st birthday today. So happy birthday Matt, hope you have a great day xxxx

These are the cards that I made for him.

The first one is made using the new Chronology collection papers. I just added in a few brads to match and some co-ordinating card.

I inked all the edges with Brushed Corduroy distress inks and used some of the new Chronology cogs to finish it off.








The second card couldn't be more different! lol. It's a simple download from the Craftsuprint website, printed on to card stock and then I added the photo and a bit of glitter glue.









The next is also a Craftsuprint download. Again printed on to card stock and then assembled using foam tape, and mounted on to a 5x7 silver card blank.

And the last one is taken from an idea in a craft mag, I didn't have the same supplies, so I just made use of what I did have, but I don't think it turned out too badly lol.



Anyway that's all from me today, thanks for stopping by. See you soon Jenxx

Dabble Day tag 2....

Good morning all and happy Monday.

Hope you have all had a good weekend. Mine has been great, we had a dabble day on Saturday and my grandboys and their mum came to visit for the weekend :-)))) So a happy girl today lol.

Speaking of dabble days, as Jude said yesterday we had such a good time, we thoroughly enjoyed doing all of the projects and met some really lovely people.

As Jude shared her tag yesterday I thought I'd share mine today. Exactly the same recipe but slightly different designs and colours.

I went for the Broken China distress stain to give me this lovely blue/green colour and silver gilding rather than the gold.

I do love the fact that you can stain this vintage seam binding, and I think there will definitely be some working it's way to my craftroom soon!

And the first time working with embossing paste, I have got to get some of this lol.

 

I am really pleased with how it turned out. Obviously not as good as Hels original tag, but then again, she is fabby at them lol.

 

Anyway hope you like it too, thanks for stopping by.

 

See you soon

Jen

xx

Filled to the brim with girlish glee

Happy Sunday crafters! Hope you all are well and will get some crafting time today.

As Jen mentioned yesterday we went on a Dabble Day organised by a local craft shop. We had a great day doing 3 projects, all fabulous and extremely enjoyable. We were as giddy as school girls waiting to go [hence the Gilbert & Sullivan title] and the day didn't disappoint.

Over the next few days we will share our take home pieces and probably some of the new stash we needed to buy while we were out ;0 Well it would be rude not to buy some of the goodies we used and our parents would be very disappointed if we were rude to anyone :)

 

My first piece is a tag we made with the wonderful Hels Sheridan. O how inky, painty and gilded did we get lol! The background was built up with a book page acrylic paint and crackle glaze. We added embossing paste through a stencil then smoothed gilt cream over the top polishing it to a shine.

 

The butterflies were stamped on a book page and backed with clearly for art before we coloured them with distress stain. I used aged mahogany which with 2 coats was a nice deep red. These were heated and shaped then stuck to the tag.

The ribbon was coloured with the same ds then scrunched, dried and tied in a messy bow.

The word was distressed with more aged mahogany and the frame was painted, gilded, then painted again to make it look tarnished.

 

The pictures do not do this justice so I tried brightening one to give you a better idea of the shine from the gilding cream.  It is lush!

 

Mine didn't look as good as the original but I still love it. Hope you do too.

TTFN Jude x

Dabble Day.....

Good morning,

Hope you are all well today and planning on doing something nice this weekend. Jude and I are off for a Dabble Day! I know I'd never heard of one either lol. But it is something that is run by our local craft shop, I assume lots of others do them too, but this is our first one. Anyway we are looking forward to having a play with what ever they have planned for us and getting to meet other crafty people and the three designers. We have Jo Channing, Julie Atkinson and Hels Sheridan :-)))))

We are super excited so hopefully it will be a great day. We will let you know how we get on tomorrow.

Anyway no card from me today. I have been making them it's just they are for a birthday next week so I can't show them yet lol. So today I thought I'd share another bracelet that I made for Jude.

She asked for something in this lovely jade green with gold, so here it is, and she has a little thing about owls at the moment so I thought I'd pop one on for her lol.

The bracelet is really pretty and seen as how I had plenty of beads left I made her a little pair of earrings too.

I know she really likes them, hope you do too.

That's all from me today, see you soon.

Jen
xx