Phoenix Inspirations

I am starting a new challenge blog on the 1st January 2020. It's purely for Christmas cards and will take place on the 1st and 15th of the month. If you are interested in being part of the Design Team please leave a comment below with your contact details and I will get back to you. Christmas 24

It's time for another challenge over at the Rainbow Card Challenge and this week we have a Rainbow colour scheme for you. Rainbow Card Challenge Here is my card - a cute reindeer showing off his gorgeous multi-coloured baubles on his antlers! This was such a quick and easy card to make. I used my Dashing Deer stamp set and heat embossed my reindeer with copper embossing powder. The sentiment was stamped with Cherry Cobbler ink and then my self adhesive gems were coloured using my Stampin' Blends. this is the kind of card that can be ultra simple as it is here or it can have all the bells and whistles added too and this is certainly a possibility that I will be exploring very soon so please do pop back and take a look. Thanks for stopping by today - Happy Advent everyone!! - J xx

Today's card is inspired by Autumnal/Halloween colours. I also used the fab sketch from this week's challenge at CAS(E) this Sketch Here is my card My main colour for this card is Pumpkin Pie - hence the title! The rest is Basic Gray and the base card is Very Vanilla. The stamp set I used for this card is Perennial Birthday and not only does it have the gorgeous little floral images but this amazing in your face sentiment too. I hope you like my card today - I'm off on my jollies tomorrow night after work. I'm spending a couple of days with my daughter. I have a couple of cards made and photographed but whether or not I have time to share them with you is anyone's guess!! Thanks for stopping by today - see you soon - j xx

I have a challenge card to share with you today using the lovely Hostess set Soft Spring. I've used the sketch from this week's challenge over at  Freshly Made Sketches Here is my card I used a pale pink card stock and over layered it with a piece of vellum that I had stamped my image on to. I stamped it with Versamark ink and then heat embossed it with white embossing powder. The sentiment is from Beautiful Friendship and it was stamped with Melon Mambo ink. The ribbon is some I had in my stash but it matched perfectly with my colour scheme. I have actually started making some Christmas cards this past week - they're not all put together yet but I've started! Thanks for stopping by today - see you soon - J xx

The set Rooted in Nature was a gift from my lovely upline  Michelle Last  - please visit her blog as her cards are stunning. Anyway - Rooted in Nature has some fabulous foliage images that look lovely as a wreath especially stamped in gorgeous rich browns - take a look Kraft makes a lovely card base but I used Early Espresso for the circle in the middle - it's a perfect backdrop for the copper embossing powder. Time's moving on and I'm hoping to use this set for a few Christmas cards  - imagine this card in red and green with accents of gold - yummy! Thanks for stopping by today - see you soon - j xx

Beautiful Friendship again - this time stamped on vellum. It's a little tricky as sometimes the ink stays wet longer than on card stock but it does make the images glow don't you think? So after stamping the vellum it was cut up and attached to a Kraft card base A fancy banner was added with a copper embossed sentiment along with a couple of branches punched with the Sprig punch. Don't you just love the metal embellishments in the corners? They are my new Designer Elements. There's copper, gold and silver - lush. That's all for now - see you soon - j xx

Who says masculine cards are difficult to make? Well I did until I got my crafty little paws on this fab bundle. Sailing Home has to be one of my many favourites sets and I really haven't used it enough! Here is a card I made a while ago - take a look The co-ordinating dies make great accents for the cards - I LOVE the ship's wheel!! Making an early New Year's Resolution now to use this set more!!! Thanks for stopping by today - hope you like my card - j xx

So, at the risk of being boring I have another Never Ending Card to show you today. This one uses my Daisy Bundle. Don't worry - these posts are not never ending - I think I'm done with these for a while now! See you soon - j xx

Is there anything more spectacular than a Never Ending Card? I love making them and recently I made one using the Magnolia Lane DSP. Instead of leaving it as it is though I decided to add a little colour. I coloured the flowers using my Pool Party Blends - have a look at how it turned out: Individual images were cut and adhered to the card and sentiments were also added. It even stands up like a regular card so it can be displayed - take a look See you soon - J xx

Cute and Cuddly was the brief for this card - a Face book swap. Luckily I have just purchased Wildly Happy and these bunnies are just thing. Post-it-notes were also grabbed so two little bunnies rapidly became nine! The bunnies were then coloured with my Blends and a background of blue and green sponged on. Rooted in Nature was also 'rooted' out and various bits were stamped and cut out to be added behind the panel of bunnies. I'm loving using Kraft for my cards at the moment. It makes a good strong base and stands up well - as well as looking great with the woody elements. There are three more gorgeous images of mummies and babies in this set and I can't wait to use them all! See you soon - j xx

A quick and simple card today. Three panels stamped with images from the Sailing Home set matted and layered onto blue card stock. Kraft embellishments were die cut and added. A very quick and easy male card . A short and sweet post today - hope you like it nonetheless! j xx

When asked to make some thank you cards recently I immediately reached for the Painted Harvest set. These beautiful blooms lend themselves to quite a few bright colours and here I've used three - take a look: yellow and orange Red and pink Pale and dark blue Ad don't they look good all together? The flowers were fussy cut but the leaves have a lovely punch to make creating these cards a doddle. Thanks for looking today - see you soon - j xx

This card is a bit of a mish mash of images: Colourful Seasons, Artistically Asian and Waterfront. (Sorry can't remember where the sentiments came from!!) This was the card I made for a colleague at work who was leaving. She had a new job teaching in Japan - hence the oriental themed card. It turned out really well if I do say so myself and show off the perfect versatility of Stampin' Up products. Sophie loved her card - we all signed it for her and I believe she took it with her. I think it's really cool to know that one of my cards is all away across the world in Japan! That's all for today - thanks for taking a look - see you soon - j xx

Sympathy cards are probably some of the hardest to do - especially when it's someone you know. This is a card I made for a friend who sadly lost her husband. No sentiment or words - what can you say - but just quiet and peaceful. Lily Pad Lake was used and teals and blues for the colour. My stork was stamped and die cut on the Big Shot as this set has marvellously matching dies. See you soon - j xx

This is a card I made fro a recent Face book swap. The brief was Stars and this little image seemed perfect. Night of Navy card stock matted onto silver mirror card makes a fab base for the cute baby image (Moon Baby) which has simply been stamped, coloured and fussy cut. Punched stars are added along with the sentiment and voila - the perfect baby card. j xx

So my last post was Beautiful Friendship but in black - today I've stepped it up a notch and it's in green and pink. I also used my new Stitched Nested Labels for this - perfect for quick and easy matting and layering. Thanks for stopping by to visit - see you soon - j xx

Our challenge over at HERE is Oooooh I thought - grab a stamp, some black ink, bish bash bosh job done! It doesn't happen quite like that though does it? I did some masking and only just left enough room for my sentiment and left  a finger print on the card so I had to add to add some gems!! Never mind though take a look at my card The set I used is Stampin' Up Beautiful Friendship. I haven't used this nearly enough yet as it looks great coloured. I've been gardening today - clearing some of the old finished flowers. I was having great fun in the sunshine and even managed to avoid the neighbours' bully of a cat. He's a huge ginger tom named Tigger and it's his life mission to attack me at least once a day. Today though I thwarted him - I had on my gardening gloves  - too thick for his grabbing paws and teeth. He left very disappointed! Thanks for looking - see you soon - J xx

Yes it's been a while to say the least! I had decided to take August off - my daughter was coming to visit and I was taking time off work so it seemed a reasonable thing to do.  However September arrived and as I was thinking about getting back to blogging business I was struck down with a mystery ailment.  To cut a long story short no one knows what this ailment was, what caused it or how to cure it. Therefore I have taken matters into my own hands and cut out anything I use that contains chemicals  ie make up, shower and hair products and also laundry products. They have all been replaced with natural plant based products and the problem is easing. Next to be tackled is what I put in my body so watch this space.  The good news is that I am now feeling up to crafting and blogging again so once more watch this space! Thanks for baring with me  - I hope that you are all still out there reading this  - see you soon  - J xx

Today's post is a tutorial on making a Penny Slider card - very easy to do and very effective. Let's go! Gather a few items - card base, coloured and white card stock, inks and a stamp set with large floral images. I used To a Wild Rose. Take your card base and mat and layer coloured and white card stock. Next take a piece of card stock and create a piece to cover at least half of the card front - the wavy line is optional - you can leave it straight if you wish. Now we are going to make a small slot - use a die, punch or do it just by eye but the width must be narrower than your penny. I did mine with a circle punch: punch the holes at the ends of the slot and connect them using a craft knife. Now it's time to do some stamping. Add a background to your card and then make some elements to add to the front of your card and most importantly the things that you want to be able to slide. I want my sentiment to slide and I will also add the bu...

Today's card uses one of the sets that recently retired - one that I'm not ready to let go of just yet! It's Fabulous Flamingo and today I've teamed it up with the Tropical Chic set - still available. So this card is mad up of several layers. The first is a Pale pink card stock on to which I have matted a layer of white. This has been stamped with green inks and the leaves from the Tropical Chic set. On to this I have layered a piece of vellum. This has been die cut with one of the dies from the tropical Dies set. Finally the flamingo was stamped and fussy cut and added along with some die cut flowers and leaves. I love flamingos so I can see this set remaining a favourite for a very long time! See you soon - J xx