DT card for Make the day Special - Love and Laughter

I have a mini card to share with you today made using stamps from the Adventures in Happiness Unity Stamp set available from Make the day special. The set is very versatile and includes so many lovely stamps. I particularly love these little flowers. They are so simple but can be embellished in so many different ways.

For my card, I used some spotty backing paper from American crafts. I stamped using Stampin Up inks and coloured the image with Promarkers. I then cut the image out with a labels nestabilities shape. I measured where my ribbon would go and then stamped the sentiment with green ink.
I wrapped some ribbon around the card and added a bow topped with a heart button, I then added buttons to the centre of the flowers. I stuck this panel on to my card base, I then finished the card with a couple of Prima flowers with a button centre.
I hope you have a lovely Friday and a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend.
Jane
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A ballet fairy for the new Willow sketchie Challenge

It's Thursday already so time for another Willow Sketchie Challenge. This week, the DT got to play with another cute Ballet Fairy download available from Willow Designs. The lovely Sketch by Sharon is teamed with a new Recipe. Sharon would like to see a scrap of fabric, some checks and something green on your cards.

I used papers from the Nana's kitchen DCWV stack on my card, I love the bright summery colours. The ribbon is from Tesco's.

I struggled a bit with incorporating fabric into my scheme and in the end I stamped on a piece of white fabric to cover a button for the sentiment which I used as a centre for my green flower.


I decoupaged the image after coloring with my Promarkers to make it look like the fairy is flying and I glittered her wings. Here is a sneaky peek at Sharon's lovely sketch.

I hope you will be able to join us for this Challenge for the chance to win a Willow Designs download. Make sure you check out the blog for lots more inspiration from the DT,
Jane
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I love digi Challenge #6 DT Card - Thank you

Here is my card for the next I love Digi Challenge. For this fortnight's theme, we had to make a Thank You card. I had lots of fun playing with my sewing machine on this card to create a patchwork effect.



For this Challenge we are sponsored by Toucan Scraps and I printed their gorgeous papers on to textured card. The layout is quite simple and I used one of my new Magnolia stamps which I coloured in to match the papers on the topper. The sentiment is Hero Arts and the flowers are from various sources with kanban pearls for the centres.
I hope you will be able to join us for this Challenge for the chance of winning 1 product from the Toucan scraps shop.

Make sure you check out the I love Digi Challenge blog for more inspiration from the DT.
Have a lovely Thursday!
Jane
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WOYWW and some ATCs

It's Wednesday today so time to show off my desk again for WOYWW. It is tidy today but don't be fooled into thinking this has been a craft free house for the past few days. I was working downstairs yesterday colouring some of Paula's lovely images for her next release. You are going to love them! I had a bit of a disaster last night, I had spread out all my scraps and stamps and finished two cards when I spilt a glass of squash everywhere!
I managed to save the Projects I was working on and the Kraft box you can see on the desk but a lot of my scraps are now gone :-(

I thought I would also share some ATCs I made for Paul's swap this month. I used some My Cute Stamps stamps I bought in Farnborough, the paper is some DCWV Christmas paper and it matches the American Crafts ribbon perfectly.

I hope you enjoyed looking around my desk, if you want to see many more and share a piccie of your own, please pop on over to the lovely Julia's blog so join in the WOYWW fun!
Have a wonderful Wednesday!
Jane
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The Crafthouse Press goes vintage

I recently received a lovely package of goodies from the Crafthouse Press which included some gorgeous Vintage Pyramage images. I don't do vintage very often so it was a bit of a Challenge for me to work out of my comfort zone.

I started by assembling the decoupage and added pleated lace to frame the image. I matted and layered pink and cream patterned card which I had inked with distress inks. I then layered up a punched border, ripped music sheet and added butterflies, handmade flowers and paper roses as well as a stamped sentiment.
As a finishing touch, I dotted aroud some pearls.
Have a lovely Tuesday!
Jane
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Pollycraft Monday Challenge - Make your own Flowers

It's Monday already which means it is time for a new Pollycraft Monday

Challenge. The theme this week chosen by Michele is 'Make your own flowers'. I chose to use this adorable image of Felicity on a swing. I have made a card in a similar style to this a while back using a Monkey swinging from a tree and was inspired by this card by Emma to have another go.

I used an old Hobbycraft punch for the leaves and the string is by East of India. One of my crafting staples at the moment.
I coloured the image with Promarkers and cut her out making a slit at the bottom of her hands to thread the string through. I mounted the image with foam pads.

I made a flower from Kraft paper loosely following the tutorial in the Magnolia mag. I don't have a large flower punch so I used a Nesties flower shape. The smaller roses are from my local Craft shop and all papers used are Basic Grey Wisteria.

We have a sponsor for this Challenge. The winner will receive this gorgeous Baby Ellie download from The Creative Cottage

How gorgeous is this? I just love all the polka dot papers!
As well as the overall winner of the Challenge, we will be picking favourites from the entries using a Pollycraft image and these will be able to display the following badge on their blogs.

Each month all the 'Favourites' will be entered into a draw to win a £10 Pollycraft voucher...

I hope you will be able to join us for this Challenge and I look forward to seeing all your cards.
I am also entering this card in the Die Cut Dreams Challenge which is to 'Make your own flowers'.
Have a lovely Monday!
Jane
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Ronnie relaxing

Emma, my very talented Design Team colleague at Pollycraft lost her Dad last September following an accident at work...in his memory Emma and her family are raising funds for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance charity.

Paula from Pollycraft has drawn a wonderful digi inspired by Emma's Dad to help them raise funds. I made a card with him yesterday and had so much fun colouring him in to match my papers. He is just fabulous!


"Ronnie'' is available to buy for only £1.50 directly from Emma and also from the Pollycraft shop. ALL proceeds from the sales will go to the YAA.
Emma is also running a Challenge on her blog to help spread the word about the digi stamp. Please help Emma raise as much money as possible for this fabulous cause!
Have a lovely Sunday.
Jane
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Funky April Showers!

The theme of this month's Get Funky Challenge is April Showers. As soon as I saw this adorable Pollycraft image I thought of paperpiecing it with lovely bright papers from the Funky Hand Dreams come true Papercraft Factory CD.

I printed the image onto white card then onto the green spotty card, the blue and green card I used for the background and onto the pink card. I started by colouring in the face and hair,jumper, hands, legs and umbrella handle on the white card and then cut them out. I then cut out the pockets, the hat and the coat in pink and stuck them to the blue and green background.
Next I cut out the umbrella, boots and coat in green and stuck them over the pink layer. Next I added the legs, face, hands and the pink pockets and pink detail for the boots. I added pearls and gems to pick out the buttons and detail on the hat and umbrella. As a final touch I added glossy accents to the boots, pockets and collar of the coat.
With a bit of careful cutting I was able to use the rest of the spotty sheet as backing paper for the card and some of the pink to mat the image on to.
The sentiment is from Elzybells and the charm is from the Hobbyhouse.
I had lots of fun cutting out all the layers and working out how best to put them all together. It was a bit tricky but I think I made it work!
Have a lovely Saturday!
Jane
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Easy Craft Projects #11 - a colour Challenge!

We're bringing in some sunshine this fortnight with our next challenge!

We want you to create a card, layout, or other craft project using the colour...

Orange!

I created a card using a download from the Pollycraft Critters and Cogs collection. I coloured the image with my Promarkers and cut it out with my Nesties.

I used a orange backing paper from the DCWV Boys stack and punched some stars using a Fiskars punch then topped them with some American Crafts buttons. I cut a sentiment out using a Nesties label and set it with an eyelet so I could thread it with some red cord to tie a start charm to. As a finishing touch, I added a couple of green pearls.
I hope you will be able to join us for this challenge, Clip Crop Crafts is sponsoring challenges 11 and 12 and one lucky winner will receive a gift voucher for their online store.
The deadline for entries to the prize draw is Thursday 6th May at 11:59pm (GMT). Challenge 12 will be online on Friday 7th May.
Jane
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Make the Day Special DT card - life's adventures...

I had a play last weekend with my stamps from the Adventures in Happiness Unity set available from Make the day special.
The sentiment stamps that are part of the set are so lovely and make a great card on their own without the need to combine them with an image.

I love this sentiment and it's serenity reminded me of these papers from Cosmo Cricket. I love papers with Clouds and these are no exception, I love the vintagey aged feel to them. I stamped the sentiment straight on to the backing paper and cut it out with my Nestabilities and matted it on to some coordinating paper. I matted the cloud paper on to the same paper and sewed around the edges. I punched some holes and set some eyelets and threaded the sentiment tag with organza ribbon.
I added a butterfly made from a punched layer and a butterfly embellishment from Mei flowers.
I hope you have a lovely Friday.
Jane
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Dragons and Dinosaurs....Happy St Georges Day and a Fabulous freebie!

It's St George's Day today and I made this card on Monday to give to a colleague. He loves to celebrate St George's day and I made him a very basic quick card at the last minute last year so I thought I would be a bit more prepared this year.

I used a dragon download from Dustin Pike. I altered it a bit added the red cross to the shield and a sentiment to the sign. I coloured him with Promarkers and decoupaged the shield to give some dimension.

I matted some DCWV boys stack paper on to red card after I had wrapped red cord around it, cut the coloured image out and added it to the card with foam pads. I tied a button on to the cord and added black gems to the corners of the card as a finishing touch.

I have lots to share today as Fridayis Freebie day on the Pollycraft Challenge blog and Paula has a gorgeous little Dinosaur digi to share this week.
I made a mini card, I think I am addicted to making these! I used some alligator glittered paper as a base and then layered up some yellow card and some blue sky paper. I inked every layer before sticking it down.
I coloured the Dinosaur with Promarkers adding glossy accents to pick out the green and his eyes. I added a lovely big red button for the balloon and a Stampin up sentiment cut out with a Nesties label. Make sure you pop over to the blog to get your own Dino stamp and check out some more DT cards!
Have a lovely Friday!
Jane
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New Willow Sketchie Challenge DT card

It's Willow Sketchie time and this week we have a lovely new download to work with which is available from Willow Designs. We are working with a lovely sketch by Poppy and a recipe:

Something Pink
One Butterfly
A Sprinkling of Fairy Dust Glitter

I used Bobunny double dots paper and some gingham paper I bought from my local Craft Shop. The border punch is Martha Stewart and I punched along both sides of the reverse of the double dots cardstock. I cut out image with a Nellie Snellen die and threaded Bazzill tulle through the holes adding a bow to the bottom topped with Pearls. The sentiment is by Hero arts and the Butterfly is made up with a Martha Stewart punched butterfly on top of a Nesties Butterfly.
Here is the lovely sketch that Poppy put together for us, it was lovely to work with and I think you will have lots of fun creating with it. I hope you will be able to join us for this Challenge for the chance of winning some of Sharon's lovely downloads. Make sure you check out the blog for the rest of the DT's cards and to give a warm welcome to our new team members

Hazel
Lisa

Have a lovely Thursday.
Jane
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WOYWW - flowers and a mess!

It's Wednesday again so time to show off my desk for WOYWW. I haven't crafted since Monday as I am off work since Tuesday with a very sore throat and feeling run down and dreadfully achey and laid up on the sofa with the dog :-( I had a day's holiday Monday so I had a bit of a play making my own flowers so this is what my desk looks like today.

Here's a close up of what I got up to. I made a felt flower and a fabric flower using M+S mens hankies whicj I bought to cut up as I could not resist the colours. I made a ribbon rose with pink striped ribbon, a lace flower, the red one is made in the same way as the felt and fabric flowers but with screwed up tissue.
There are also a couple of tulle flowers, a polka dot ribbon flower and my favourite, a paper flower made inspired by the tutorial in the latest Magnolia Ink magazine.
I hope you enjoyed looking around my desk. If you want to see more and share a photo of yours, please pop over to the lovely Julia's lovely blog for more What's on your Workdesk Wednesday fun.
Jane
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Another Gorjuss decoupage card

I have another Gorjuss girl decoupage card to share with you. No stamping on this one but I did use a bit of ink to tone down the bright white on the ribbon.
The decoupage image and stripy paper I have used are from the Love pack of the new Gorjuss girls decoupage by The Crafthouse Press . Each pack contains two sheets of a 3D die cut decoupage featuring delightful Gorjuss images, plus two coordinating backing sheets, enough to make 4 cards with some leftovers.


The die cut shapes are great and perfect to make a quick but stunning card. To make my card, I cut a piece of the stripy paper to fit my card card blank and layered it with some Papermania V&A Paper. I sewed around the edges and then added my decoupage topper which I embellished with gems.


I toned down some white striped ribbon from Paperchase with some Antique linen distress inks and added to a flower made with Prima flowers with a popper centre.
As a finishing touch, I added the sentiment and a couple of little Martha stewart butterflies embellished with gems.
I loved making this card, the colours of the decoupage are just beautiful. I have 1 more sheet of decoupage left from this pack so keep checking back for more ideas.
Have a lovely Tuesday.
Jane

New Home card with lots of butterflies!

My Friend and colleague moved House at the end of last week so I needed a New Home card. I picked up a pack of Unity stamps at the Make it show in Farnborough and hadn't tried them out yet. The post box is so sweet and I love the little butterflies flying out of it.


I found this Kraft paper with cute little houses on it in my stash. I think I bought it from a shop that was closing down. I made a card base with a recycled Kraft folder and covered it with house paper which I had inked around the edges and wrapped with brown gingham ribbon.


I coloured the image with Promarkers and then added lots of little Martha Stewart butterflies. I dotted around lots of little gems and added a bow to which I had tied a button.

I decided to decorate the inside of the card with a layer of white textured card. The sentiment is stamped from a combination of Elzybells stamps and the envelope is part of the Unity set. I couldn't resist adding a couple more punched butterflies!
I hope you have a lovely Monday, we bought new bike yesterday and I have a day off today so Jack and I will be cycling to town this morning then home for a bit of crafting :-)
Jane
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If April showers bring Spring Flowers....

...what do clouds of volcanic ash bring? I feel so sorry for all the poor holidaymakers who are stuck trying to get home or cannot get away on their long awaited holidays. It's hard to believe one cloud can cause so much upset. The clouds on my ATCs are thankfully harmless.
We haven't seen many April showers so far this month, typical really as this is the theme for our swap this month at Addicted to ATCs. I made these this morning, I only need 3 but I ended up making 5. I finished up with4 as Charley ate one! I used a Hero Arts cloud stamp, Little Claire's wellies stamp, some gems and charms from The Hobby House.

I had a very productive day today, not necessarily craft wise but it was an enjoyable one nonetheless. It was a football themed morning with Jack playing a match and then I dropped the boys off to Darren's work so they could all go to watch the Reading game. I decided to go and visit Beryl at Ashridge Farm Craft shop in the afternoon. I spent about an hour there and helped Beryl choose some lovely Prima flowers for her next order, can't wait for them to arrive! I also treated myself to one of her new Magnolia stamps and the magazine and a couple of other bits and bobs.
When I got home, I cleared out my shed and had a trip to the Dump! A very busy day! I hope to have a bit more time for crafting tomorrow!
Jane
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Pollycraft Friday Freebie - the beautiful Fearn

The very generous and talented Paula is sharing a gorgeous freebie today on the Pollycraft blog. If you hop on over there you will be able to download this gorgeous fairy image. Fearn is so pretty and is wearing a gorgeous hat. She was lots of fun to colour in with my Promarkers adding glitter glue to show off her delicate wings.

I used a backing paper I bought at Ally Pally to make a label shaped card with my Nestabilities and wrapped it with some lovely polka dot ribbon. I framed the image with some gorgeous Bobunny Double dot paper. I have lots of this in many colours but hate to cut it up and use it as it is so gorgeous!


The stamped sentiment is from Hero Arts, I love the simplicity of the font. I added glossy acccents to the mushrooms and tiny gems to the flowers and as a finishing touch framed the image with paper flower, Martha stewart Butterflies and gems.
I wasn't too sure about the finished card last night but it has grown on me today :-)
Have a lovely Friday, my boys are coming back from their Nan and Grandad's today where they have been staying this week. Can't wait to get them back and give them a BIG hug!
Make sure you check out the Pollycraft blog for your freebie and also to see some lovely cards made by the very talented DT ladies.
Jane
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First Make the Day Special DT card - Mini Bath time Fiona

I am very excited to be sharing my first card as part of the Make the Day special Design team with you today using the cutest 'Your Next Stamp' mini stamp of Fhiona relaxing in the bath.

This adorable mini stamp is available from Make the Day Special and is perfect to decorate mini cards with. As soon as I saw the stamp, I instantly thought of my new Basic Grey Wisteria pad as the colours are so serene and the patterns are so feminine, they make a lovely little card.

To make the card, I cut a mini card shape using the Nestabilities large scallop squares and covered it with the backing paper around which I had wrapped some lovely crisp ivory grosgrain ribbon. I added a simple bow to the left and embellished it with some pearls.
I stamped my image onto Coordinations white card as I love working on textured card. I coloured the image with Promarkers and added some glossy accents to the bathtub. I cut the image out with my Nesties, layered on to blue card and used the same technique for my sentiment.
The finishing touch was some little cream flowers with pearls added to the centres.
I hope you have a lovely Friday.
Jane
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Time for a new Willow Sketchie Challenge

It's Willow Sketchie Time again and it's even more exciting than usual for me this week we are using my Sketch and Recipe.

We want to see Polka dots, some stitching (real or fake) and 2 buttons.
This is the little sketch I designed for the DT to follow. This week we are using this cute little image of a sleepy bear.
I used some Funky Hand polka dot paper from the Papercraft Factory CD to cover my card base and stitched around the edges. The checked papers are a download from Willow Designs and I also stitched around the edges.

I printed 3 copies of the bear so I could decoupage him and added ribbon and 2 buttons as a finishing touch.
Please come on over to the blog to check out what the DT made with my Sketch.
I hope you will be able to join in with the Challenge too as you may win a Willow Designs download!
Enjoy the rest of your day.
Jane
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I love Digi sketch Challenge

It's time for another I love Digi Challenge! This time we have a lovely Sketch by Dawny P for you all to play with!


This one is lovely and simple and it is amazing how different all the DT cards look even though we were all working with the same sketch.
I decided to use the little chick from the Stamping Boutique again as they are sponsoring this Challenge.
My papers are digital and are from Two Peas. They have some amazing digi kits!



The little chick has some lovely little Patchwork patches on him so I decided to go for a patchwork effect on my card and added some fake doodle stitching to the edges of each layer. The sentiment I used is by Hero Arts and the little gem is too. The photo corners are QuickKutz shapes.

I hope you will be able to join us for this Challenge for the chance to win some gorgeous Stamping Boutique images. Make sure you check out the blog to see all of the DT's stunning cards too!
Have a lovely Thursday!
Jane
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WOYWW - Ally Pally Stash

I had a day off from work yesterday and my Hubby and I went to Winchester for the day, the kids are with my Parents in Swindon this week, we had a really nice time and I picked up a Bargain in WHSmith. The 2 sets of purple drawers on the right were reduced from £7.99 to £1.99 then I got an extra 20% with one of their discount cards, bargain! Hubby went off to footie in the evening so I quickly tidied up my messy desk and got all my Ally Pally stash out to look at properly.

I had a great time at the show and treated myself to lots of goodies...my favourites are all the charms I got from the Hobbyhouse and Whiff of Joy and I love the sewing stamps too. I got a couple of small paper stacks and some lovely 12x12 papers, I LOVE cloud papers at the moment and this one will be used for my April showers ATCs.

I bought 6 reels of tape for £2.00, I am always buying tape and white card...I also got a great EK success border punch. I have great plans for this. I got a few bits and pieces to use with the Pollycraft Cogs and Critters, Cosmic Shimmer mist to try and loads more!
Now I have to find somewhere to put all this away! I hope you have enjoyed looking around my desk, if you want to see more, please pop over to Julia's blog where dozens of What's on Your Workdesk Wednesdayers share their tidy and more interestingly messy desks! Why not upload a photo of yours too!
Hope to see you there and have a lovely Wednesday!
Jane
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