Pollycraft Monday Challenge - Baby it's cold outside!!

I hope you all had a great Weekend! I can't believe it's Monday already. I had a very busy Weekend, got lots done and saw my Parents which was really nice.
The theme for this week's Pollycraft Challenge has been set by the lovely Lisa.
She has chosen 'Baby it's cold outside' so I have gone for a wintry look to my card with greys and pastel pinks.
Unfortunately Lisa will be leaving the DT after this Challenge. We will all miss her and her lovely cards loads.

I chose Sonny Honeycloud 'For You' as she is all dressed up for the Winter Weather. She is my favourite Sonny and I have used her a lot! I used a grey Memory Box paper with a pink Gingham which I printed from a Funky Hand CD to pop Sonny onto and I coloured her in with my Promarkers to match the papers. I added some lovely Pom pom trim I received as a gift to the bottom of my image panel underneath a stamped Hero Arts sentiment. I finished the card with a Craftwork cards snowflake and a die cut swirl which were both covered in lots of glitter glue. I finished off with a sprinkling of pearls.
I hope you will be able to join us for this Challenge for the chance to win a lovely prize from the Creative Cottage.

Please make sure you check out the Challenge blog for more details and to take a look at the wonderful cards from the rest of the DT.
Have a great Monday!
Jane
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New Funky Hand CD launch day!

The totally fabulous new Funky Hand CD 'Craft the Year Away' is being released today. If you tune in to Create and Craft at 10am you will be able to see the lovely Anice demonstrating all the new features of the CD.

As you can see, I had lots of fun making samples which Anice will be taking to the studio. I used a card template which is included on the CD to make the card above, it's such a great shape. The little Sunshine is an image which is also on the CD with the sentiment.

The new CD has a fully interactive Workspace, like a virtual craft table which allows you to drop papers, images onto a blank page and create layers and write text using some cool and very Funky fonts. I love the label font which I used on the cover and tabs of the Birthday book above.

The little four leaf clover is one of my favourite images, I added lots of glitter to it and popped it on a green backing paper to which I had added a sentiment.

The last card I have to share with you today has a yummy cupcake topper which is one of the images from the CD. I love the fact that you can resize the images at will. The sentiment is also included in the selection of images, I love the speech bubble.
I really hope you will be able to tune in to the show on Create and Craft at 10am today, the CD will be available to buy there from then and will be available on the Funky Hand website from 1pm.
I can't wait for the show to start so I can play 'spot my sample'!!!
Have a great Sunday!
Jane
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CES Challenge #21 Bold and Bright!

It's Saturday already and time for a new CES Challenge. Our theme this week chosen by the lovely Amy is

''BOLD & BRIGHT''

If you are a regular visitor to my blog you will know how much I love my bright colours so I had lots of fun choosing my papers for my card.

I used My Mind's Eye Fine and Dandy papers which are available here from Crafty Emma's Store. We are sponsored this week by the Stamp Fairy and I use one of their cute bear images for my card.

I hope you will be able to join us for this Challenge. One lucky winner will receive their choice of 3 images from The Stamp Fairy Store!

Make sure you check out the Challenge blog for lots of lovely cards from the Design Team.
Have a great Saturday!
Jane
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It's nearly release day!

I have a little snippet of a card to share with you today as a teaser of the brand new Funky Hand CD 'Craft the Year Away' which will be launched on Sunday at 10am on Create and Craft in a show with the lovely Anice, it will then be available on the Funky Hand website at 1pm.The new CD has some many amazing new features which I love and the papers and extras are superb! Please check out the demo here for all the details and make sure you tune in to Create and Craft Sunday at 10am, I will be to look for my samples! Can't wait!
Jane
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My first Squiggle Stamps DT card

I'm very excited today to be able to share with you my first card as part of the Squiggle stamps Design Team. I have been having lots of fun playing with lots of wonderful Squiggle stamps images since I joined the team and I have been really inspired by the fabulous little characters.

I made this card for my youngest Son to give to his brother for his birthday using the fun 'Hey Dude' stamp which is available in digital and rubber. I took my inspiration from the star on the skateboard and after colouring him with Promarkers and cutting him out with a little border, I added him to a die cut star which I had embossed and run through my sewing machine. I used some of my favourite Bobunny double dot paper to layer some patterned kraft paper onto and finished with a Hero Arts sentiment and a couple of yellow buttons.
Have a great Wednesday!
Jane
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A card for Lori's Colour Challenge.

It's my eldest Son's birthday next week, he is going to be 14 so I wanted to make a cool card for him. These days he is either glued to his laptop or his Ipod so this Dylan image by Lori Boyd was just perfect for his card.

I couldn't resist taking part in Lori's new colour Challenge, the colour combination is just gorgeous and perfect for boy's cards, makes a bit of a change from blue and green!
I used various papers from my stash and embossed kraft for the central panel. I bought the cotton tape in Winchester at the weekend and it is a perfect match to the Kraft card!
The stars are die cut or punched and I topped them with some scrummy polka dot buttons. The red one is from The Ribbon Girl. The letters are by Prima and Making Memories.
Have a great Tuesday!
Jane
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Exciting Design Team news!

I have some exciting news! I have been asked to join the Squiggle Stamps Design Team!


I am thrilled to join the very talented ladies of the Design team with 4 other new Designers:

Kimberly

Deb

Shelley

Lalo

I will be back with my first DT card Wednesday but in the meantime, make sure you check out the DT blog for some gorgeous cards to inspire you and the gorgeous Digi images and Rubber stamps available in the Squiggle Stamps shop.
Jane
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Pollycraft Monday Challenge - Black, White and one other colour

It's Monday already and time for a new Pollycraft Challenge! I had a very busy weekend and made 8 cards altogether which I will be sharing with you over the coming weeks and have nearly caught up with all my washing!


I think Maurice may have run out of clothes too...doesn't he look wonderful in his sexy pants!! I love Maurice and I was delighted when Paula gave us this new image to play with. For this week's Challenge, I used a lovely red Bobunny heart paper which matches Maurice's pants perfectly.
The sentiment is by Hero Arts and I added a heart button tied with some Ribbon Girl Twine as a finishing touch.
I hope you will be able to join us for this Challenge for the chance to win 3 digis from the Secret Crafter.

Make sure you check out the Challenge blog for lots of inspiration from the DT too!
Have a great Monday!
Jane
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New Pollycraft images

A quick post today to share a card I made yesterday with one of the new images available from Pollycraft. The image I used on this card is called 'Tin Rose' and I love it! It's such a fab image to colour in and I really went for it with my green Promarkers.


Love is definitely in the air and Paula has created some wonderful Valentine images featuring all our favourites including Maurice as you have never seen him before! I used some lovely bright papers from my stash, I have been rooting through all my papers and have even cut some of them up, I have bought so many lately!
I hope you have a great Sunday.
Jane
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CES Challenge #20 - Angels and Fairies

As we recently lost a few of our DT members, we have now become one big team on the CES Challenge blog and we will all be joining in weekly with the CES Challenges from this week. I loved making my card for this week's Challenge theme of Angels and Fairies which was set by Vicky.


It was the perfect opportunity for me to use my Pink Paislee papers which I received as a gift from my Hubby this Christmas. The colours are so lovely and feminine and I really enjoyed colouring the Wildrose studio fairy in pastel colours with my Promarkers. I added lots of paper roses from my stash and a Lili of the Valley sentiment as well as my usual stitching and a bit of paper punching and die cutting for some lovely lacy borders. The gorgeous ribbon has been in my stash for quite a while and it matched the papers beautifully. I hope you will be able to join in with this Challenge for the chance to win your choice of a 6x6 Memory Box paper pack from Emma's Store. Make sure you check out the blog for lots of inspiration from the Design Team.
Have a great Saturday!
Jane
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Lucy's Sketches - Sketch 7

Here's my card for the last day of Lucy's Sketch Challenge. It's my first Christmas card for this year, the stamp fitted the sketch!


I love the snowflake backing paper by Making Memories, it has a wonderful vintage feel to it and I just had to add some of my favourite gingham ribbon to top off the tag.
I hope you have a good Friday, my weekend has not got off to a good start, our heating broke down last night so we are freezing! I did lots of colouring after rooting through my papers for inspiration so I will be able to put together lots of cards over the next few days :-)
Have a great Friday!
Jane
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Lucy's Sketches - Sketch 6

I finally managed to make cards for the last two sketches of Lucy's sketch week which ended on the 7th of January (I will share the other one with you tomorrow). Lucy has made all her wonderful sketches available here on a PDF and is leaving the sketches open for participation until the end of the month so you still have time to join in the fun. I love the simplicity of the sketch that inspired this card.


To make my card, I printed some Funky Hand Gingham from the Colour Me Happy CD onto heavier weight white card and die cut a scalloped card with a Sizzix die. I cut a block of green spotty paper and sewed around the edges after I had stamped the Hero Arts sentiment. I stamped a Woodware ice cream onto white card and coloured it with my Promarkers before tying some Ribbon Girl Baker's twine around the stem of the glass. I added a couple of pearls and then stuck it to the card with foam pads.
As well as Lucy's sketch Challenge, I am entering this card into the Ribbon Girl's colour challenge which is pink and green this month.
Have a great Thursday!
Jane
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Passing on the Amberink Torch...

I can't believe a month has gone by already and I am ready to pass on the Pink Amberink torch which was handed to me by Julia to my lovely and very talented Friend Joey. I am so thrilled she accepted and I can't wait to see what she creates with Amberinks wonderful digis and ipapers.


I had so much fun this month creating the Projects you can see above, I love the little bunnies, the papers are so colourful and inspired me so much!

It was a real honour to carry the torch and I am now off to display my badge proudly on my blog. Make sure you hop over to Joey's and the other Torchbearers

Brenda

Sue

Meg

Laurie

to congratulate and cheer them on their way as they prepare to run!
Jane
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A card for Lori's first Challenge.

I am a huge fan of Lori Boyd's drawings and I was delighted when she started her own Challenges on her blog and even more delighted when I found out it was a colour Challenge!

Lori has chosen 4 gorgeous colours for us to use for this 1st Challenge, aqua, an olive green and 2 gorgeous pinks. The combination is perfect and it was a real treat to use for my card. I used various papers I found in my scrap box and added lots of stitching. I coloured Puddle Jumper Ella with my Promarkers and then added lots of scrummy Ribbon Girl goodies, I used my new seam binding to make a bow which I had wrapped with twine and topped a felt flower with a gorgeous spotty button!
I have had a great evening crafting so am off to bed now as it's late!
Jane
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My last Amberink Project

My time as a Torchbearer for Amberink has nearly come to an end and I have one last Project to share with you made with the gorgeous Bunny digi images and the lovely red gingham ipaper.


I treated myself to two new toys recently. A Dymo label maker with fancy fonts and a Sizzix XL suitcase die so I decided to play with both of them yesterday to make this Project. I first made the case, which was very quick to put together (as long as you remember to flip the patterned paper to cut the pieces so they face the right way!) I decorated the case with a Prima flower a Magnolia sentiment and a black bow.

I then decided that I wanted to fill it with something. I had the idea to make several little tags with different sentiments and images to fill the little case up.

I had so much fun printing and colouring the Bunnies and thinking up and making the sentiments and decorating the tags. Each one is different and they fit in the box perfectly.
I have really enjoyed creating my Projects for Amberink and will be passing my torch on in the next few days. Please come back soon to see who the next Pink Torchbearer will be.
Have a great Tuesday!
Jane
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My card for the January 2011 Card Chain Challenge

I recently joined the Hero Arts group on Flickr and through this found the Card Chain Challenge run by Deborah. I signed up for the first time this month and unbeknown to me, so did my colleague and Friend Petra, by sheer coincidence she is my swap partner and I will be giving her this card today.


I used a variety of papers for my card, a new circle die, punches and a new stamp I bought last week. The sentiment is by Hero Arts.


The swap has 3 themes and you can follow one or more. I chose to challenge myself and follow all of them! Deborah chose these lovely colours for us.

And gave us this gorgeous sketch, I flipped it for my card and added some little extras.

We could chose from the following themes:

Valentine's Day OR
Friendship OR Australia Day

I chose Friendship as I was lucky enough to be partnered with my Friend Petra.
I can't wait to receive my card from the person before me in the chain!
Have a great Monday!
Jane
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All a girl needs

I have three cards to share with you today made with the All a Girl needs stamp set which was released by Funky Hand yesterday.

I love these shoes, even though I would never wear heels like that anymore, I do own several unworn pairs I just had to have!


I used a Cutting Cafe template to make this card. I made a similar card for the issue of Quick Cards Made Easy which is out this month.

I do love my handbags, especially Radley ones, in fact I bought myself a new one from the sales yesterday to add to my collection! It's gorgeous!
Have a great Sunday!
Jane
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Introducing the very Funky Betty and a new Get Funky Challenge.

I have lots of news to share with you today. I finally managed to get Crafting last night and had a blast playing with something new but I can't show you anything I made just yet. I can, however, show you something new from Funky Hand. Funky Hand are venturing into the Rubber Stamping world with their very own superstar......Betty! You can see the full range of stamps here with some lovely samples made by the DT. I have used the stamp set 'All a Girl needs' to make these two cards with Funky Hand papers.


I love Shopping Betty, she looks a bit like me after a trip to a Craft Show! The little pearl embellishment was made from beads from a cheap bracelet from Primark as an experiment. The ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl.

I love this sweet little pup which is part of the set and the sentiments are all very versatile.
If that wasn't enough Funky Hand fun for you....we are relaunching the Challenge blog today and we have changed the format a little bit. You can see all the details here and you can expect to hear from the Funky Hand DT throughout the month as every three days, one of us will be sharing a project to tie in with the Challenge theme and will be bringing you tips and ideas to inspire you. There is a free download this month, available here and this month's theme is 'Going around in circles'. Please check out the blog post here for a gorgeous card from Allison and all the details!
Phew, that was a long post!! Still tidying up my Craft space so better get back to it!
Have a great Saturday.
Jane
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Happy Thoughts

I have not done any crafting since the weekend and I don't think I will get any done the rest of this week either.Real life is taking over a bit too much this week!
I do have a card to share with you today which I made a few days ago using a Hero Arts stamp set I bought before Christmas.

I do love cute character stamps and this little girl is adorable and was lovely to colour with my Promarkers. I created a little scene for her to jump around in using some paper scraps and my sewing machine. I stamped the sentiment onto a cloud cut with a Quickcutz die which I topped with a button.
I hope you have a good Wednesday.
Jane
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Sending Bunny Hugs!

I have a card to share with you today made with a gorgeous Amberink digi image and papers. I just love these little bunnies and the sentiment is just adorable.
I love this rich yellow paper combined with the gorgeous pink flowery design. It reminds me of spring and meadows full of flowers! I coloured the bunnies with my Promarkers and cut them out before adding them to a Nesties circle. I added a bit of real and fake stitching and a lovely felt flower was the perfect finishing touch.
There is still plenty of time for you to enter the Amberink 21 days Challenge.
You can find all the details here. The theme is GET ORGANIZED and you can find lots of inspiration from the DT on the challenge post.
Have a great Tuesday!
Jane
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A Blog award!

I was very lucky this weekend to receive a blog award from the lovely and talented Sharon so it's now time for me to pass it on and to thank Sharon for thinking of me!


This is a special award as it comes with the extra bonus of a free digi. In order to qualify for the $5.00 Digi’s With Attitude! Gift Certificate you must state 3 things that make you different from everyone else and you must nominate 5 blogs. Lastly, you must display the Blog Award Badge (above) in your sidebar and link it back to the Digi’s With Attitude! Challenge Blog.

The three things that are different about me are:

1. I am scared of frogs
   
2. I am fluent in French
3. I am completely rubbish at Maths and have been all of my life!

I would like to pass this blog award on to these very talented crafters:

Emma

Paula

Joey

Marit

Julie

Thank you to all of you for your lovely inspirational blogs!
Jane
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Pollycraft Monday Challenge - New Things

I hope you all had a good weekend. I spent a lot of yesterday organising my craft stash, I am tackling it bit by bit so have managed to sort through a lot without making a huge mess which makes a change for me! I will post some photos when I am all finished...Anyway, on to this week's Pollycraft Challenge where Kylie is challenging us to use 'New things' on our Projects. This is the ideal opportunity to kick start your mojo for 2011 and use some of your crafty Christmas pressies or January sale bargains!
Everything I used is new (gifts to myself!) I bought the embossing folder Saturday and I love it. I bought the kraft blanks over Christmas and have used loads of them already.


I used the lovely Sonny Honeycloud on my card and coloured her with Promarkers to match the gorgeous Bobunny Jazyme paper. The pretty Ribbon is from The Ribbon girl and the Spellbinders die I placed Sonny on is a new purchase too. I hope you will be able to join us for this Challenge for the chance to win a pack of Promarkers donated by Letraset.
Have a great Monday!
Jane
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Let's go fly a kite!!!

I always loved flying kites when we used to go to the Seaside when the kids were much smaller. We used to buy the kites for them but I would end up flying them!

This card was made as a commission for a Friend's daughter to give to her Auntie and Uncle and I was specifically asked for a teddy flying a kite so Cuthbert breezy was the obvious choice. I love his cute little t-shirt in this image. I used some new papers and lots of different letter stickers. The cloud is a Quickcutz die shape.
I am going to try and have a sort out of my craft stash this afternoon as it is getting a bit out of hand and I can't find anything anymore!
Enjoy your Sunday!
Jane
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CES Challenge #18 - All Creatures Great & Small...

It's time for our 1st CES Challenge of 2011! Our Challenge theme this week chosen by the lovely Emma is...

''All Creatures Great & Small''

We have the fabulous Doodle Pantry sponsoring us this week and I have used one of their cute images and sentiment for my card combined with some Basic Grey Marjolaine papers which are available here from Crafty Emma's store.


I used a simple layout and cut the image out to layer on to a circle I had printed with the sentiment. I love these colours, I think they are great for Men's cards.

I hope you will be able to join us for this Challenge. One lucky winner will receive a $15 voucher to spend in store.

Make sure you check out the Challenge blog for lots of inspiration from the DT.....
Have a great Saturday!
Jane
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Lucy's Sketches - Sketch 5

A quick post to share the card I have made for Lucy's 5th sketch. I am running a day behind as I had to finish off writing up the instructions for a commission for Quick cards but I hope to catch up tomorrow!


I used some Making Memories and My Mind's Eye papers and Spellbinders Butterfly dies to decorate the tag. I also run the Butterfly shapes through some embossing folders but I don't think you can tell in the photo. The ribbon is vintage from my stash and I scrunched it up to distress it a little. The sentiment is one of my favourites from Hero Arts. The gorgeous little Fimo rose is handmade by the very talented Jane Beljo. I am off to bed now as it has got late!
Jane
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A cute Puddle Jumper

I simply adore Lori Boyd's cute little images of kids and own quite a few of her digital images which are such fun to colour in.
Before Christmas, I treated myself to a Puddle Jumper rubber stamp and only inked it up for the first time yesterday. I chose him as he reminds me of my boys when they were little, I love his little mischievous face.


I used up more of my scraps (these are Cosmo Cricket from two different collections and the diamond pattern is by My Mind's Eye) and added lots of layers to some fab kraft card bases (I love these, you will be seeing a lot of these on here!). The sentiment is by Hero Arts, the felt star was from Paperchase 2 years ago and one of my favourite buttons from The Ribbon Girl finish the card off perfectly.
Lori released two new images yesterday in digi format, you are going to love them, take a look here to see them.
Have a great Thursday!
Jane
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Lucy's Sketches - Sketch 4

Lucy's 4th sketch is available now! I will be quite sad when the Challenge is finished as I am having so much fun playing along. I made a card this morning following the sketch using some scraps from my box and a new Hero Arts stamp I bought before Christmas.

I used My Mind's Eye patterned paper and stitched a strip of Bobunny double dot paper in the middle to follow the sketch. I stamped the sentiment directly on to the dotty paper and then stamped, coloured and paper pieced the image using more Bobunny papers. As a finishing touch, I added 3 little pearls to the top right of the card.
I am off now as I have a busy day lined up!
Jane
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A Thank You card

I have a little Thank You card to share with you today which I made using 'Butterfly Suzie' which is available here from Di's Digis.

I used a Cosmo Cricket backing paper and a gorgeous Ribbon from The Ribbon girl and I coloured the image with Promarkers. The sentiment is by Hero Arts.
I am entering this card into this week's Passion for Promarkers challenge as the theme is Thank You cards.
Jane
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DT Call - Come and Get Funky with us!!

Would you like to make cards and other projects from Funky Hand products that you haven't had to pay for and have your hands on before they are even released for sale? Would you like to see your work displayed on the Funky Hand website www.funkyhand.com and regularly be shown on live Create and Craft TV shows? Would you like to have the opportunity to make cards for inclusion in your favourite craft magazines? Would you like to be part of a really friendly, supportive, funny, amazingly talented and down to earth group of crafters?


Then you just might like the idea of applying for a place in the Funky Hand Design Team.

Here's what you need to do to find out more. Email Anice on contact@funkyhand.com and she will send you all the details of how to apply to join us. You need to return your applications by Friday 7th January and the new members of our Design Gang will be announced on Sunday 10th January.

You all know how much I love Funky Hand and Anice's designs and there are so many exciting things instore at Funky Hand this year and the first thing any new DT member can have a play with is our new craft CD ROM that is due to be launched on Create and Craft TV on Sunday 30th January 10am.

I hope lots of you will apply, I can't wait to see who our new Team members will be!

Have a great Tuesday!
Jane
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Lucy's Sketches - Sketch 3

I am really enjoying Lucy's sketch week! I was going to have an early night tonight as I had a busy day but as soon as I saw Lucy's third sketch I just had to make a card with it! Making the card was really quick, the longest part of the process was finding the tiny sentiment stamp which I knew I wanted to use and was nowhere to be found.


I used some My Mind's eye papers and a matching chipboard cherry as a starting point for my card. I wanted to do something a bit different for the circle in the sketch. I've been wanting to try this technique for a while. It's my first try so it's not perfect but I am quite pleased with the result. To make the gem circle, I traced around a Nesties shape lightly in pencil. I then pierced holes where I wanted each gem to be and rubbed out the pencil lines. I then added the gems over each pin prick hole with my Quickie glue pen! Simples!

Life's a circus!

It's time for me to share another Torchbearer project made with some gorgeous AmberINK ipapers and digi stamps.

I decided to make the sentiment stamp the focus of this card and printed it quite large onto a square of white textured card and then coloured it in with my Promarkers. I stitched the square onto the fabulous ipaper and then added a bunting digi image which I had coloured, cut out and covered in glossy accents. The finishing touch was three little gems in coordinating colours in the bottom right of the image panel.
Have a great Monday! The boys are off to football this afternoon so I will be crafting!
Jane
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Lucy's Sketches - Sketch 2

I am back again with a quick post to share the card I made for Lucy's 2nd sketch. I used more scraps, these are Cosmo Cricket Togetherness papers and stamps from my new Hero Arts stamp set which I am totally in love with!
I love the way I get inspired by new stash. However, I am trying not to buy anything new for a while as I have so many unused stamps and papers! My Hubby is watching the darts from Ally Pally and I keep imagining it full of craft stash so I think I might already be having withdrawal symptoms!
Jane
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Laugh a little!

I am being a good crafter and using up my scraps. I got them all out and had a good sort through them hoping to throw some away but couldn't so I used a few and put them all back :-)


This image was printed out and in amongst the scraps and I thought it matched this Hero Arts sentiment really well. I love this image by The Greeting Farm as she is so much fun to colour in. I used some of my favourite Baker's twine from the Ribbon Girl to hide some stitching which went wrong.
I hope you are all having a good weekend, we went for a lovely walk this morning and are preparing to empty our Garage which is full of rubbish and has been for the past two years!
Jane
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Lucy's Sketches - Sketch 1

The very talented Lucy whose style I admire a lot is sharing some of her fabulous sketches with us this week and has invited us to play along. The first sketch is a lovely simple one and I found some time this evening to make a couple of cards with it using some of my scraps.


The first card I made using the reverse of a Crate Paper Christmas paper and a scrap of notebook style paper. I used a Hero Arts stamp from a new set for the sentiment and the Butterflies were punched using a Martha Stewart punch.

For the second card, I used some more scraps and buttons with the same sentiment stamp. I decided to add a Butterfly at the last minute as it just looked too plain without it.
I made a few more cards this evening which I will share with you over the next couple of days and I hope to make a card with Lucy's second sketch tomorrow.
Jane
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