CES Challenge - Feeling the blues

Hello Everyone! It's finally Saturday and time for a new CES Challenge. The lovely Vicky has chosen our theme this week and it is 'Feeling the Blues' so we would like to see your cards and Projects featuring Blue as your main colour. I have used papers from the fabulous Baby Mine pad by Fancy Pants which is available here from Crafty Emma's store for my card with a gorgeous Simply Sassy image from Sugar Nellie.

I die cut and punched my paper and added sewing before wrapping the layers with Baker's twine and tying on a sentiment tag. I finished with a lovely gingham bow topped with a button and lots of flowers including some of the gorgeous Mini Blossoms which you can find here.
I hope you will be able to join us for this week's Challenge for the chance to win a voucher to spend over at Crafty Emma's Store.

Have a great Saturday and make sure you check out the Challenge blog for lots of inspiration from the DT!
Jane
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Some cards for a Blooming great Tea Party!

Hello Everyone! I hope you are having a good week so far. We are going to be holding a Blooming great Tea Party at work this week to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer care. You can find all the details about holding your own tea party here.

I'm not very good at making cakes (I am an expert at eating them however!!) but I can make cards with cakes on so I make a dozen of these cards using Pink Petticoat images and sentiments, the papers are various 6x6 Shabby chic style papers from my stash and I mixed and matched them also using a lacey border punch, As a finishing touch, I added a pearl to each card. They were very quick to put together, I made them while watching Top Gear on a little production line colouring each element of the same colour on each image in a row. I hope they will help to raise some money towards a very worthy cause.
Have a good Friday!
Jane
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Sugar Nellie GDT - Noel

Hello Everyone, I hope you are not getting fed up of seeing Christmas cards yet....I have another one for you today made using one of the adorable stamps which were release this month at Sugar Nellie. The stamp I used on this card is called Noel, and is available here from Sugar Nellie.

I thought I would make a rectangular shaped card for a bit of a change, I am so used to working on square cards, I have to admit, I did struggle with this one a little and I am not 100% happy with the finished result. I used My Mind's Eye papers which I stitched with two rows of different stitching, I felt like trying something new! I coloured and glitterd the image and cut it out with nesties before distressing the edges with inks. I layered it onto an embossed kraft panel which I had also distressed, added it to the card with foam pads and finished with a bow. Have a great Thursday!
Jane
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Whiff of Joy DT - New release preview

Hello Everyone! I have a card to show you today made with one of the images which will be released next month at Whiff of Joy. If you are a big fan of Henry the Mouse you are in for a real treat! Whiff of Joy are releasing a fabulous series of stamps featuring him on a Travel and Adventure theme and a great collection of matching dies!

I have used Henry hugging a heart to make a card which I gave to my Husband for our Wedding Anniversary yesterday. We have been married for 14 years this year and we celebrated by going out for a lovely dinner. I don't know where the years have gone, my Hubby is my best Friend and is so supportive of my crafting and I love him more and more with every year which passes. The paper I have used is by My Mind's Eye and I picked up th ribbed kraft at the Newbury craft show. The sentiment is by Hero Arts and the pretty heart Ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl. Make sure you keep an eye on my fellow Whiff of Joy Design Team members blog for more sneaky peeks up until release day, the links to their blogs are in my side bar.
Have a great Wednesday!
Jane
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New Pollycraft Christmas images!

Good Morning Everyone! I hope you had a good start to the week. I have a card to share with you today which I made using one of the new images which were released yesterday at Pollycraft.

I adore all the Cheeky Chester images and this one is no exception He looks adorable all dressed up in his Christmas outfit. I used more Making Memories papers and a Whimsy stamp sentiment and Christmas list.
The ribbon and vintage buttons are from my stash. You can check out all the new Pollycraft images here.
Have a great Tuesday!
Jane
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Pollycraft Monday Challenge - Christmas in July

Good Morning Everyone! I hope you are all well, I have yet another Christmas card to show you, I don't think I have ever made so many Christmas cards this early! The Challenge theme this week on the Pollycraft Challenge is... Christmas in July. Paula is also releasing some fabulous new Christmas images today so make sure you pop over to the shop to check them out!

I have chosen to use an old favourite , Ethan's New Jumper, on my card from the Felicity and Friends images which I teamed up with Kraft card and Making Memories Christmas papers. I love the vintage feel they have. I added lots of sewing and a punched border and tied on a little bell with some twine. The sentiment was created on my label maker and stuck on a Stampin up punched tab. I hope you will be able to join us for this week's Challenge for the chance to win a voucher from Crafty Emma's store.

Make sure you check out the Challenge blog for all the details and some fab cards made by the DT with the new images. Have a fab Monday!
Jane
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CES Challenge - Get Welly Soon!

Good Morning Everyone, I hope you are well. I am a bit late with my DT card for this week's CES Challenge as I have been busy finishing off some cards for a Commission and lost track of time. They are all done now so can relax a little! The theme for this week's Challenge chosen by the lovely Sue is: Humour/Funny

I have made a card using some My Mind's Eye papers and a stamp from Little Claire's which I have had for
ages!

I printed the sentiment on the PC and then cut it out using a Spellbinders label and finished the card with a Ribbon Girl Button. I hope you will be able to join us for this week's Challenge for the chance to win a £10 voucher (exc P&P) to spend over at Crafty Emma's 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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Sugar Nellie GDT - Another Christmas card!

Morning Everyone! I have been having a play with more Christmas stamps today from the lovely GDT package I received from Sugar Nellie. This adorable image is called 'Puss in Boots' and is available here from Sugar Nellie.

I used some Cosmo Cricket papers from last year layered onto deep red card from my scraps file. I added some gorgeous dotty ribbon and cut a frame for the image with a Nesties die adding little gems around the outside of the image. The sentiment is by Pink Petticoat and was cut out using a Nesties label. I have a day off today and have a busy day of Crafting ahead of me!
Have a lovely Friday!
Jane
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A Simply Sassy Christmas card

Morning Everyone! I hope you are having a good week. Thank you for all the lovely comments you have been leaving me recently. I have been really busy this week but finally had some time to do some crafting last night. I ordered this Secret Santa Simply Sassy stamp a few weeks ago and was itching to get her inked up and made into a card and I thought she would be perfect to use for the sketch which is this week's theme on the Passion for Promarkers Challenge blog.

I used Basic Grey papers from last year and a scrap of digi paper leftover from another Project. I used a Chipboard sticker which I bought in a sale in Hobbycraft and some label font letter stickers for my sentiment and some adorable pom pom trim and a Jillibean soup die cut to which I added some stick on gems.

I loved using the fab sketch by Michele, it was so easy to follow and I will be digging this one out again soon for more cards. I am hoping to have some more crafting time tonight, I really miss it if I don't do anything for a few days! Have a great Thursday!
Jane
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Whiff of Joy DT for the Whiff of Joy Challenge

Hi there! It is Wednesday already and time for a new Whiff of Joy Challenge. I have made a card using the fabulous sketch and an image from last month's release called On time for class.

I coloured the image in with my Promarkers and cut it out before layering onto Echo park papers which have been layered onto kraft card. I have used gingham (again....I am a bit addicted to gingham at the moment) ribbon and paper and some raffia ribbon from my stash and a printed sentiment. The corner sticker is also from Echo park.
Here is the fab sketch by the very talented Kylie for you to play with this fortnight.

Make sure you check out the Challenge blog for some fabulous inspiration from the Whiff of Joy Challenge DT and all the details of this fortnight's prize. Have a great Wednesday!
Jane
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Simply Sassy GDT call

Hi Everyone! I hope you are well. I don't have any new cards to show you today but I thought I would try out again for the latest GDT call for the Simply Sassy blog. I am a huge fan of the Simply Sassy images and am eagerly awaiting the next release on the 23rd to be able to buy some more!!
For the GDT call, Maria has asked for us to share 3 of our favourite Simply Sassy cards which show our style the most and I think these 3 do just that.

My first card features my favourite Simply Sassy image (so far!!) I just love colouring this gorgeous Hippie Chick image and she looks perfect with these papers. I actually made this card for a Sugar Bowl sketch and missed the deadline!
I made my second card for my Son when he got his paper round. I love making cards for boys (lucky as I have 2!) and this Lost in Thought image really reminds me of my Ryan.

My third card uses another of my favourite images, Missing you and lots of distressing with inks and my paper distresser. There is lots of sewing on this one which, if you are a regular visitor to my blog, you will know I love adding to my cards. I often feel my cards don't look finished if I don't add sewing!
So that's it! These are my three! Wish me luck and if you fancy trying out too you can find all the details by clicking on the logo below.

Have a good evening and I will be back in the Morning with my Whiff of Joy DT card for this week.
Jane
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Pollycraft Monday Challenge - Summer Fun

Morning Everyone! I hope you had a lovely weekend. We had lots of rain here and I spent a lot of time watching the golf with my Hubby and trying to keep warm! I am looking forward to seeing more sunshine soon! We have a great theme for you this week. Marit has chosen Summer Fun as our theme this week on the Pollycraft Challenge blog and I have chosen to use Barbeque Chester for my card which I teamed with some fab paper I discovered in my stash!

I added some stitching, lots of gingham ribbon and a Pink Petticoat sentiment and coloured Chester with my Promarkers before cutting him out and adding him to my card with foam pads.
I hope you will be able to join us for this week's Challenge. We are sponsored this week by Quixotic Paperie which is one of my favourite shops!

If you take part this week, you may win 2 packs of Make it crafty chipboard embellishments. Make sure you check out the Challenge blog for all the details and some fab inspiration from the DT!
Have a great Monday!
Jane
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Sugar Nellie GDT for the Sugar Bowl Challenge

Good Morning Everyone. I hope you are having a good weekend. I had a lovely day yesterday. I had my hair cut and coloured, crafted in the afternoon and then went to the cinema with my Hubby in the evening.
I made this card yesterday using one of the fabulous new stamps called 'The best gift is you' from Sugar Nellie which I received in my Guest Design Team package a few days ago. I have followed the sketch fron the current Sugar Bowl Challenge.

I coloured the image with Promarkers and then cut it out and distressed and inked the edges. I used various papers from my scraps layerd up with stitching and added lace to follow the set Challenge theme. I layered up some flowers which I topped with a button to make an embellishment and finished with a tag cut from a printed Pink Petticoat sentiment.

You have until Wednesday 10th August to take part in this Challenge as the Challenge sweeties are going on their Summer Holiday! You can find all the details here.
Have a great Sunday!
Jane
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CES Challenge meets Whiff of Joy DT for a Christmas themed challenge...

Good Morning Everyone! I cannot believe it is the weekend already, I am so glad it has arrived although I am not feeling very well today. I am still in bed which is very unusual for me at this time!
Saturday is CES Challenge day and the theme this week chosen by Emma is Christmas. It does seem strange making Christmas cards before I have even been on my Summer holiday but I always struggle making enough cards so I guess this may push me to be a bit more organised!

I used non Christmas themed papers to make my card. They are all by Echo Park and the kraft paper is from my stash and I embossed it with a snowflake folder which is still one of my favourites in my stash.
The adorable image stamp is by Whiff of Joy and can be found here and the sentiment is from this set.
I punched a strip of green card and wrapped it with gingham bias binding and twine from the Ribbon girl and then tied on a sentiment cut into a banner shape before adding a line of gems and my little image on top.
The snowflake is a Spellbinders shape cut from acetate and glittered with glitter glue after I had added it to the card with a pearl in the centre. I also added some glitter to the candy cane.
I hope you will be able to join us for this week's Challenge for the chance to win a £10 voucher (exc P&P) to spend over at Crafty Emma's Store.

**Check out all the pre-order's....20% of RRP and also new Candi and Sentiments now in stock**

Have a great Saturday and a fab weekend!
Jane
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Wedding day wishes

Hello Everyone! I hope you are all well, I am so happy it is Friday! I am being pampered tomorrow morning at my Hairdressers and I hope to do some crafting this weekend after I have tidied up my desk.

I have a card to share with you today which I made using BoBunny papers which you can buy from Crafty Emma's store here and a Pollycraft cake image from the Mini Doodle set which is available here. I used various punches and Nesties to layer up the papers and added seam binding and lots of pearls too. I finished with some paper flowers which I coloured with Promarkers and a pearl button.
Have a lovely Friday!
Jane
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Gingham for Passion for Promarkers

Good Morning Everyone! I hope you are having a good week so far. I have two more baby cards to share with you today. The images I used on these cards are from Squigglefly and the sentiment is from Whiff of Joy.

I used Funky Hand papers and a ribbon from stash on this card along with a tiny flower from Crafty Emma's store.


This card also uses Funky Hand gingham and I used a button from The Funky Farm Scrapbook Barn. I am entering these cards into this week's Passion for Promarkers Challenge, the theme is to use gingham. I was very excited to see this morning that I had been picked as one of the top 5 Passionistas for last week with another baby card! Thank you ladies!

I had a lovely evening out crafting yesterday with my Friend Petra and new Friend Lucy who are both exceptionally talented crafters. We chatted, ate good food and I even managed to make good progress on a Commission I am working on! I hope you have a great Thursday!
Jane
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Moon Lullaby

Hi Everyone! I hope you are all well. A quick post from me today to share a card made with one of the new images from Pollycraft. This little cutie is called 'Moon Lullaby' and is available here from Pollycraft.
I used some old papers from my stash layered onto pink card and sewed around the edges before adding to my card base. I coloured my image with Promarkers and cut it our before adding it to the card with foam pads and added glitter glue to the stars. The sentiment is an SRM sticker and I finished with a flower topped with a button and some yellow stick on pearls. I had a busy evening yesterday working on a Magazine Commission and am popping out tonight for an evening of Crafting with some friends. It's been a long time since I went out to craft in a group, I am really looking forward to it although deciding what to pack was hard! I have loaded up my little car with lots of bags and am only planning on making 4 cards!
Have a great day!
Jane
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Pollycraft Monday Challenge - The Great Outdoors + digi winner!

Hello again! I am back with my DT card for this week's Pollycraft Monday Challenge. This week, the lovely Emma has chosen our theme and it is 'The Great Outdoors'. I have made a card using the gorgeous Sonny Honeycloud Rainy Days image.

I used some leftover Pink Paislee papers from a magazine commission and some raindrop paper by Echo Park which was layered up with Die cut kraft which I cut with a Whiff of Joy border die. The gingham was a present from a crafty friend and I die cut the Pink Petticoat sentiment with a My Favourite things Die-namics die. The netting was from my local craft shop and the flowers from my stash, oh and one last thing...the charm and button are from The Ribbon girl! I certainly piled it all on for this card but I love the finished result!
I hope you will be able to join us for this week's Challenge. We are sponsored this week by Crafty Emma's store which stock so many lovely goodies including ALL my favourite paper collections, it's no surprise I never have any money with all tempting goodies Emma has in store!

On last week's Challenge, I offered the chance to win the Little Stars digi I used on my card to be drawn from one of the commenters on the post. Random org picked no7 from the 21 comments which is Carly!
Can you please send me an email to milliesmarvels@gmail.com and I will arrange for your image to be sent to you. Have a great Day!
Jane
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My Mini Santa Shrink Plastic Earrings tutorial on the WOJ Inspirations blog

Good Morning Everyone! I hope you had a good weekend. I have a day off work today and am going shopping with my Mum. I have something a bit different to show you this morning.

I made some little Christmas earrings from the Mini Whiff of Joy Quiet Santa stamp and you can see the full tutorial with all the instructions here.

Tie a yellow ribbon for Passion for Promarkers

Morning Everyone! I hope you are having a good weekend. I had a very productive day yesterday finishing off 5 DT cards which I had been putting together in stages over the past few days. I went to babysit my friend's gorgeous little Son and he obviously wore me out as I fell asleep at my In-laws in the afternoon!

I have a card to share with you today which I made using one of the lovely recently released Little Stars images from Pollycraft. I love these little cuties and they are so much fun to colour in. I used some of my favourite ginghams in a lovely powder blue and teamed it with yellow ribbon, twine and kraft. The sentiment is by SRM stickerss and the little charm is from The Ribbon girl. I am entering this card into this week's Passion for Promarkers challenge, the theme is 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon'.
Have a great Sunday!
Jane
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CES Challenge - A Recipe and some special prizes

Good Morning Everyone! I hope you had a lovely week. It's CES Challenge day and we have a great Challenge theme for you this week. The lovely Jenny has set a Recipe Challenge, she would like you to use

1 image, 2 ribbon, lace or twine, 3 DP's

I have used some of the gorgeous new Basic Grey Sweet threads papers on my card with one of the gorgeous new Sugar Nellie images from the latest release.

The flowers are from my stash as is the button and the ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl. I tied the button on with some button twine. The sentiment was cut using a Spellbinders die from the banner set. It's a special week for us on CES Challenges as we are celebrating...it's Crafty Emma's Store 1st Birthday and the prize on offer for one lucky winner this week is a £20.00 voucher to spend in Crafty Emma's store.

There is also some gorgeous Candy up for grabs on the CES inspirational blog.

If you fancy winning all the gorgeous goodies above, click here to hop over to the Inspirational blog for all the details on how to enter. I hope you will be able to join us for this week's Challenge, make sure pop over to the blog for all the details and some fabulous inspiration from the DT!
Have a great Saturday!
Jane
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Helloooooo Gorgeous!!!

Morning Everyone! Thank you for all your messages of Congratulations on my post yesterday, I am still smiling! It's Pollycraft freebie day today and Paula has added to the fabulous Critter and Cogs with the one and only Gorgeous!

I think I love him nearly as much as my all time favourite Fluffy! You can find all the details on how to get hold of him on the Pollycraft blog. I coloured Gorgeous in with Promarkers to match my checked DCWV paper and then added him to a square of kraft card which I had stamped with a Cat's Life Press stamp. I sewed around the edges with red thread and then finished with a button tied with string.
Have a great Friday!
Jane
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My Profile on the Letraset Website!

Morning Everyone! I hope you are well. I sent an artist profile in ages ago toLetraset and didn't think I stood a chance of it being published on the website. But I had a wonderful surprise when I received the latest copy of the Letraset Newsletter.

My profile has been published! You can read the rest of the article here. How exciting!! Hope you have a great day. Friday tomorrow! Woohoo!
Jane
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Whiff of Joy DT for the Whiff of Joy Challenge

Good Evening Everyone! I hope you have had a good day! I don't normally post at this time but I have been really busy today! I had a day off work today to wait in for our new oven to arrive. I managed to get 5 DT cards made and am planning a shorter Crafting session this evening to make a card for the Q+A page for Quick Cards Magazine.
A new Whiff of Joy Challenge was set today and the theme is Lace and Pearls. I was going to do pastels and creams for my card but came accross this fab gingham purple card and yellow heart paper in my stash and I just had to use it!

I use some distress inks spritzed with water on my non stick craft sheet to die some lace to match the yellow paper. The image I used is one of the new Mini Stamps which were released this month at Whiff of Joy.
You can find the mini Henry Mouse Hugging heart stamp here. I love making shaped cards with my Spellbinders Grand Nesties and used the large scalloped circle to cut a base for this card. I cut more Nesties shapes and I layered them up with a tag cut using a Whiff of Joy tag die.
The sentiment was made up using some little stickers and the stamp which comes with the cute Henry image.
I finished with some flowers from my stash, a small resin flower, a button and some pearls.
I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening.
Jane
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Daddy cool!

Morning Everyone! I have a very bright card to share with you today which I made using my favourite Maurice from Pollycraft. Maurice is celebrating his birthday so I coloured him in to match the lovely bright colours in these My Mind's Eye papers.

I kept the layout simple and layered up some papers and sewed around the edges before adding them to a kraft card base before popping Maurice on top with some foam pads. The sentiment I used is by Pink Petticoat and I added a Prima pearl as a finishing touch.
Have a great Tuesday!
Jane
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Pollycraft 100th Challenge - Release day - Win a digi!

Good Morning! I hope you had a lovely weekend! I had a great day yesterday at the Newbury Stamp Show and bought lots of new goodies. It's a very exciting day for us today at Pollycraft as we are celebrating our 100th Challenge! The theme for this week's Challenge is Celebrations with an optional 'Stars and Stripes' theme.

I have made a card with one of the new Little Stars images following the theme using some striped Echo Park paper which I layered on to some Kraft card. The sentiment was created using an SRM sticker layered onto kraft and topped with a button, The image was coloured with Promarkers and then cut out. I added glitter glue to the outline of the star. I love this little image, I think she is adorable and you can find 3 other images in this set available from today at Pollycraft. Paula has very generously given each member of the DT some images to give away in addition to this week's prize so if you would like to win a digi image of the cute baby I have used this week, please leave a comment on this post.

If you are able to join us for this week's Challenge you will have a chance of winning the fabulous prize above AND a disc of 100 Pollycraft digis! A great prize to mark our 100th Challenge!
Make sure you check out the Pollycraft Challenge blog for all the details and some fabulous DT cards!
I will announce the winner of my digi giveaway on next Monday's Pollycraft post.
Have a great Monday!
Jane
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The winner of my Quick Cards Made Easy Magazine is...

No 7 which was Jenny!

Please can you send me an email to milliesmarvels@gmail.come and I will send it out to you!

Jane
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Pollycraft new release preview - Little Stars

Morning Everyone! Thank you so much for al the lovely comments you left on my blog yesterday! In a complete contrast to the Christmas cards I have been showing you the past couple of days I have a lovely summery New Baby card which I made using one of the adorable Little Star images which will be available from tomorrow at Pollycraft.

I used some cloud paper from my scraps box and layered it on to Kraft and yellow card and coloured my image with Promarkers before carefully cutting it out and adding it to the layers with foam pads. I added some glitter to the stars and a sentiment sticker from SRM stickers. I added a couple of little yellow pearls as a finishing touch. I am off to the Artstamps UK show at Newbury today. I did no crafting at all yesterday and Friday so I am really looking forward to having a good old shop and buying lots of new goodies! There is still time to enter my Quick Cards Made Easy Magazine giveaway. I will be picking a winner after 6pm local time tonight. Please click here to enter.
I hope you have a good Sunday!
Jane
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