Phoenix Inspirations

Good morning, it's the last day of the year and  Mynnette  I are kicking off our *NEW* challenge blog the  52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown  with a fabulous ANYTHING GOES theme. (Well it's Anything Goes as long as it's Christmas!!!!) Just think how organised you could be next December if you made one Christmas card a week - how smug would you be with at least 50 uniquely hand made Christmas cards under your belt? This could be you if you join us now and - to whet your appetite here is my card to give you some inspiration I have used Stampin' Up stamp Young Vermillion and I've coloured him in using a mixture of Stampin' Write markers, Promarkers and coloured pencils. The white mats have been cut on my Cuttlebug using some Papermania Nesting Dies. I also die cut the poinsettia flowers using Marianne Creatables. Don't forget to pop over to take a look - it would be great to see you over there. I am also linking this card to the  Marianne's Design Div...

Well the holidays are nearly over, the family has all gone home and my husband is back at work - time to get back in the craft room and create! I was browsing blogs and webs and came across a tutorial on  Splitcoast Stampers  for a Dutch Fold Card. I changed the measurements a little as I like my cards to be square but I was really pleased with the results. I decorated it with some retired SU DSP - Springtime Vintage and then got out a few paper punches and added some embellishment - take a look The edges of the paper were inked with Early Espresso ink as were the punched out pieces of the owl. I added some Very Vanilla Gross Grain ribbon and some flat backed gems for the finishing touches. Here is what it looks like when it's opened And this what it looks like standing up I am entering this card into the  SU Only Challenge  - Feeling a Bit punchy Punches used Scallop Edge Corner Rounder 2 Step Bird Punch 2 Step Owl Punch Boho Blossoms Punch Al...

Hello All - hope everyone has had a good Christmas and that you are all looking forward to some New Year celebrations at the weekend. This is just a quick post to let you know about a new challenge blog set up by myself and my blog buddy  Mynnette . It's called the 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown and if you click  here  you can pop over and take a look. We go live on Saturday 31st December and we are exclusively Christmas so if you join us from the start you can have 52 cards made by Christmas! Looking forward to seeing you there - Jacqueline xx

Well I think that this may be my final post of the year as I am taking a break to enjoy family and friends over the festive season. I shall leave you with this week's card for the final challenge of 2011 over on  Make My Monday . The theme this week is a SEASONAL TAG I chose to put my tag on a card - take a look The card has been sponged with Brocade Blue ink and the edges sponged with Not Quite Navy. The trees (Pine Tree from Lovely as a Tree) have been stamped using Handsome Hunter and also with Versamark. This was then sprinkled with some Snowflake embossing powder and set using a heat gun. The tag was done exactly the same way and then attached to the card with 3D foam tape. A red ribbon was added and the seasonal sentiment. I would like to wish all my followers and visitors a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year - thank you for popping by to see my blog and I hope you continue to do so - Jacqueline xx

The challenge this week at  Simply Stampin,  is a sketch - take a look Here is my card I started with a base of Crumb Cake to which I added some Island Indigo and Pool Party card stock. Stamps used are the gorgeous Agapanthus flowers from Simply Soft coloured with my Stampin' Write markers on Whisper White card stock. Thanks for coming to look today - hope to see you here again soon - Jacqueline xx

Good morning all, it's Monday so that means it's challenge time over on the  Make My Monday  challenge blog. This week it's still SEASONAL projects with the added extra of RED RIBBON.  Here is my contribution to the dt line -up It's a Centre Step card - I got the instructions from the Splitcoast Stampers site (via Just Us Girls). I used Kraft card stock as my base and then used SU Lucky Limeade and Very Vanilla. The poinsettias were made using the French Foliage stamp set (see Vicky's blog  here  to see where I got my inspiration for these). They were coloured using Poppy Parade and Lucky Limeade. My RED RIBBON is wrapped around the base with my sentiment mounted onto it. Hope you have the time to pop over to the blog and take a look and maybe even have a go your self. I am also entering this card in to the  Just Us Girls  challenge as they are looking for Centre Step Cards. Bye for now - Jacqueline xx

The theme this week at  Less is More  is a Let it Snow One Layer Card - here's mine The sentiment and snowflakes were stamped using a Versamark pad and then heat embossed using white embossing powder. A square was then masked off and blue ink was sponged over the images to make them stand out. A few gems were then added for the finishing touches. The snowflakes are from a little SU set - Snow Flurries and the sentiment is from Polka Doodles, the ink is SU Brocade Blue. I think that this may be one of the last Christmas cards that I make this year - unless I've miscalculated and I run out later tonight when I write my cards! Going to save my seat on the sofa now for the X Factor final might even treat myself to a small glass of wine (or two!). See you soon - Jacqueline xx

The theme this week at  Simply Stampin'  is 'Snowflake Sparkle'. I had to think about this one as I don't have very many SU snowflake stamps in my collection - I had to dig deep and rootle out a couple of retired sets - take a look The base card is 5" x 5" square and is stamped with a snowflake stamp from the Snow Flurries set using Ballet Blue ink and a touch of glitter. I also stamped a sentiment from the Wondrous Gift set. I then took a piece of Ballet Blue card stock and scalloped the bottom edge. On to this I stamped some fir trees from the Lovely as a Tree set - they were heat embossed with white embossing powder and a few more were stamped in blue in the background. I then found in my stash my Bird on a Branch set so he was added to the scene too along with a few snowflakes just beginning to fall. A strip of white organza ribbon just adds the final touch. See you soon - Jacqueline xx

Today was my last Tuesday morning workshop of the year and we made notebooks. I make a lot of notebooks - they make great gifts and also they go down very well at my craft fairs. Here's a couple that I made a while ago This is the one I made today for the workshop The gorgeous dotty paper is from a DCWV pad and so is the paper used to mount my owl. The owl of course is my SU 2Step Owl punch and she is sitting on a branch punched from the 2 Step Bird punch. A third punch - Boho Blossoms was used to punch the flowers. The initial is gorgeously glittery and is from K&Company. The notebook it's self was made from a cheap A4 pad and there is a full tutorial over on my  Craft Club  blog. I also used my faithful Bind-it-All machine to give it a professional look. You could also use ring binders or ribbon if you don't have a Bind-it-All. Thanks for looking - Jacqueline xx

It's week 27 at the  Make My Monday  challenge blog. All the details are over there on the blog and this week we want to see some - SEASONAL GLITTER. mmmmmmmmm glitter - take a look This is an old favourite, one of the first stamps I ever bought - my poinsettia medallion. Instead of going traditional and red with this I went for white. It was stamped and embossed in gold several times and layered up. The  leaves were then glittered in green. It was then layered onto some green card stock and I used a holly punch in the corners. Here is another view I decided to make it into an easel card. And then I decided to make it into a drawer gift box. Hope you have time to join in - or at least pop over to see our two new dt girlies and our Guest Designer. Bye for now - Jacqueline xx

Yep - the title says it all - here are the colours we got to use And here is my card The stamp set used is Butterfly Prints and I have also used my Boho Blossoms and Butterfly punches. Please pop over to  Simply Stampin'  to take a look. Short stop today as I am helping my hubby pack his suitcase - he is flying to America early tomorrow morning and I am doing a craft fair at my local village Christmas Fair - that's tomorrow too.See you soon - Jacqueline xx

I was very naughty on Monday and failed to complete my project for the  Make My Monday  challenge. Here's a quick reminder of how it looked  I have completed it now and can reveal that it was in fact an Exploding Box - here is a picture This is just one picture - if you would like to see more please hop over to the  MMM  blog 'cos over there you will see what is hiding in that box behind the Christmas trees - see you soon - Jacqueline xx