Phoenix Inspirations

This lovely image was purchased from Cardmadfairy's Creations  and the card will be entered into the Paperplay Challenge . She is coloured in with Promarkers and the pink flowers are some I won in the last  Sketch Saturday challenge. They actually come from a company called The Craft Garden and it's worth taking a look  here  as they have a wonderful array of paper flowers.  The challenge here was pastel colours so I decided on a mainly pink theme and then added a few green leaves to break it up a little. Put in a few blings too. Now I have given you a few things to click on - please don't get lost - but come back and tell me what you think of my card please, thank you - Jacqueline xx.

This card is very similar to the one I made earlier in the week - see Stamp With Us post. The challenge was to use these four colours : Unfortunatly I do not have any Rich Razzleberry so I substituted it with Rose Red. I also used  Flight of the Butterfly and my cuttlebug. I also added a few flowers and blings. What do you think? Please click here  to see this challenge and all the other lovely cards entered. - Jacqueline xx.

Hello again. I have finished cleaning my teenage son's bedroom - I removed all clothing and bed wear and and washed the whole lot (socks twice!!!). All mouldy cups and plates found lurking under the bed have been thouroughly washed and the three inch layer of dust on the floor has been hoovered away - how long will it last I ask myself?! Anyway after all that I thought that I deservered some craft time and so I made a card for this week's Tuesday Morning Sketches . Here is the sketch :  And here is my card: And here is a close up : She's dreaming with her head in clouds - bit like me!! The only thing I changed on the sketch was the placement of the sentiment, but it wouldn't fit at the bottom. Have to go now - I really need to tidy my craft desk. It is approx 6ft long but at the moment I am working in a space about 4" square!! - why does that always happen? Bye for now - Jacqueline xx.

Phew - just sat down for a well earned cup of coffee so I thought I would show you this week's card for the Pollycraft Monday Challenge   The challenge this week was to make your own flowers so I used the flower images from my Sweet Dreams Springtime Retro kit along with Melody. I also used some of my Anita's Flower Silhouette Card Shapes to make an easel card. I coloured in with pencils. O.K, so I'm off now, coffee is finished and I am half way through cleaning my son's bedroom. So it is back on with the radiation suit and decontamination will commence!! - Jacqueline xx.

No, I don't mean unhappy blues - but the colour blue. The theme on Stamp With Us  this fortnight is 'Birthday', so I chose to use Stampin' Up Bordering Blue - hense the 'blues'. It is one of my favourites, (I say that about them all!) and I teamed it up with some white card stock. What do you think? I regret to say that I do not own a decent 'Happy Birthday' stamp - something that will be rectified very soon I hope. This is for my Sister - In - Law, it's her birthday tomorrow - hope she likes it. Materials used: Stampin' Up card stock - Bordering Blue Inks - Bordering Blue stamps - the little flowers from Simply Said and Flight of the Butterfly. Flower punch Other white card stock, Cuttlebug, die, sentiment stamp, 7 Gypsies flowers.

Hi folks - hope everyone had a good weekend - what gorgeous weather! Almost too good to stay in and craft - almost, can't stay away for long! Today's card is for Sketch Saturday  and it features Dudley Dinosaur. He was a Friday Freebie over on Tales from Pollycraft . The sketch I used was this: And this is my card: Makes a good boy card don't you think? If you look very closely at the dark green mat you will see that it is embossed. That is because I have now aquired my heart's desire. I've got a Cuttlebug!! If anyone has any tips on how I use Nestabillities with it I would be very grateful. Bye for now - Jacqueline xx.

This is a lovely challenge - do anything you like - just add a charm. So I did! Materials used: Card stock - Stampin' Up Always Artichoke + Very Vanilla Inks - Always Artichoke, Handsome Hunter + Bravo Burgundy Stamps - Stampin' Up Lovely as a Tree Ribbon - Stampin' Up Very Vanilla Other - Cuttlebug + embossing folder + die, flowers from stash, Botanicals punch, Sentiment + green leaf + bead charm. To check out this challenge blog click here

Hello folks - hope everyone is O.K today and enjoying the gorgeous sunshine. I am. I even did some more gardening - that is twice now this year. I think I must be coming down with something, this is most unlike me! I am even typing this post with stung and bitten fingers ( I found a massive ants nest!). This card is going to be entered into two challenges today the first is Color Throwdown  and the challenge was to use these three colours: This is my card: All the materials are Stampin' Up: (except the sentiment, scallop punch + sentiment ink) Card stock - Very Vanilla + Bordering Blue Stamp sets - Flight of the Butterfly + Pocket Silhouettes Inks - Almost Amethyst, Sage Shadow + Bordering Blue Punches - Butterfly + Scallop Edge I would also like to enter this card into the Paper Play Challenges  which this week asks for cards without patterned paper. Am going to rest my poor bitten fingers now and try to deaden the pain with a glass of red wine or two!! See you soon - Jacqueli

I've nearly caught up - today is Wednesday so I am only one day behind. I am trying to do at least one challenge every day, although I am coming across different ones all the time and there are not enough hours in the day to fit them all in! It's great fun though. Tuesday Morning Sketches have a really fun sketch this week - you can find them here  . Now if you look at my card you will see that there are not as many points on my star as the sketch. That is because I had to cut it out by hand. I've mentioned this before - I really need a Big Shot. I will get one and I am having a table at the weekend at a local village event so hopefully will be able to add to the Big Shot fund! Take a look at my card for this challenge 'cos hopefully by Monday it will be gone! The image and sentiment are from Pollycraft, the backing paper is Anna Griffin and the rest is just bits and pieces from my crafting stash. Just another quick close up pic of the image and I will be gone. See

This is another of my most favourite blogs - I LOVE Pollycraft and for my card this week I used an image downloaded from Tales of Pollycraft - it was a freebie a little while ago and you can visit the site here  . I would also recommend paying a visit to the web site where you can see all their lovely stamps and downloads - found here  . O.K - now for the challenge. This week it is a sketch And here is my card: As I said before the image is from Pollycraft - Cody, and the backing papers are from my scraps box. I used an Anna Griffen paper punch to make the tabs and flowers from my stash. To distress the edges of the papers I used Stampin' Up ink -  Rose Red. I really enjoyed making this card and I hope you enjoy looking at it! Don't forget to check out the challenge blog - here  - Jacqueline xx.

If you click here   you will be transported to the blog - Sunday Sketch and Stamp (it's one of my favourites you know). It's their birthday and to celebrate we had 25 sketches to choose from. I chose No. 2 as you can see above, and here is my card : Now, I really want a Big Shot but my mate Bev let me borrow hers a while ago so I had the correct shape to work with. I used a basic black card stock along with some Bazzill Basics Paper in Grenedine. The sentiments are Stampin' Up - Pocket Silhouettes and the image is my own. Thank you for taking the time to look - hope you like it - Jacqueline xx.

Hello folks, just got back from spending the weekend with my Mum and Dad and had to go three days without crafting! So, after getting in and of course having a cuppa my fingers were itching to get back into my craft room. Sketch Saturday have a lovely sketch this week - check them out here  . Yikes - all those circles! Here is my card The image is from Pollycraft and so is the sentiment and the blue paper is K&Co. The main brown card stock is Bazzill - but I can't remember the colour. All the edges were inked with Brushed Corduroy Distress Inks from Tim Holtz. Phew - it's good to be back! Bye for now - Jacqueline xx.

Hi folks - how are we all doing, well I hope. The theme along with a sketch over on Truly Scrumptious   this time is 'April Showers'. So my new digi-stamp will fit right in - which is nice. I used some Stampin' Up card stock - Barely Banana, and some papers that I don't know where they came from! (I've had them sooo long) I then finished it off with some silk flowers and a few dewdrops . Continuing with the them of April Showers I also made some ATC's for a swap over on Addicted To ATC's , I used the same image - just smaller. Just off to post these and then I'm off to see my Mum and Dad tomorrow. Dad is having some chemotherepy treatment so I'm spending the day with Mum while Dad is in hospital - hopefully taking her mind off things for a little while at least. See you soon - Jacqueline xx.

The challenge on Tuesday Morning Sketches this week is Soft Hues, Flowers & Ribbons  . This is perfect as I have just come into possession of a set of 'Soft Subtles' ink pads from Stampin' Up. The colours I used are Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Pretty in Pink, Barely Banana, Certainly Celery and Almost Amethyst. I also used my 'Simply Said' stamp set - also from Stampin' Up. Everything else is from my craft stash. Hope you like it - Jacqueline xx.

   This is this week's challenge over on Pollycraft  . And this is my card : I used the brown and pink as prescribed and my chosen colour was green - touches of green on the fairy, green silk flower and foliage - I failed to notice I had coloured the flower yellow. Hope this doesn't disqualify me! I did however use one of the Lilybean fairies from Pollycraft. I had to buy the whole set as I couldn't decide which one I liked best! Bye for now - Jacqueline xx.

Oooh had lots of fun with this one. Thought "that looks an easy sketch" - took me ages! I decided to use an A6 card for a start (I have loads in my stash and need to use them up) so it was quite difficult to size all the elements on my card. I even cut into some of my new 'Soft Subtles' card stock and used the corresponding inks. I know what you are thinking - it looks very much like Zoe's from the design team. Sorry, but I just got this stamp set and punch and I just had to use them. It is fast becomming one of my favourites. So please click here   to see this challenge and all the other entries. Bye for now - Jacqueline xx. Materials: Stampin' Up Stamps - Flight of the Butterfly Inks - Soft Subtles - Perfect Plum + Pale Plum Card Stock - Perfect Plum + Pale Plum Butterfly Punch Other: Bazzill Cardstock Coloured Brads A6 Card.

This card follows the sketch over on Sketch Saturday   and is my entry for this week's challenge. It is another one of my own digi designs - soon to be avaliable as a download - and is coloured with Pro-markers. Hope you like it - Jacqueline xx.

Hi folks, what a glorious day. Funny start to the day, I lost 2 1/2lbs. Pretty good I know, My total now stands at 4st 13 1/2lbs - I just needed another 1/2lb to make my 5 stone! ah well next week for sure. I have been doing a spot of tidying up in the garden - oh yes just call me Alan Titchmarsh! So after doing my bit today I felt that I deserved a little bit of me time. O.K just need to say this first - if your name is 'Beverley Daw' - LOOK AWAY NOW - I promise you, you won't like it. Bev is one of my dearest friends however she does not like ATC's. I have tried but I can not convince her how good they are. These that I made today are for the May issue of Craft Stamper magazine. The theme is 'Wings and Things' so I decided to use my new Stampin' Up stuff and these are the results. The stamp sets I used were Flight of the Butterfly and Pocket Silhouettes, the inks used were from the Soft Subtles collection. Also used the brillient butterfly punch too. No

As promised - my second posting. This card is for Tuesday Morning Sketches found here  . This cute little doggy was the free stamp on the cover of last month's Craft Stamper magazine. The background paper is my own design and he was coloured with pencils. I really will have to emerge from my craft room soon - I haven't done any proper housework since before Easter. Mind you with the kids being off school the house never stays tidy for long. Might put it off for another few days and stay in my craft room a little longer. I have a gorgeous new stamp set from Stampin' Up along with the matching punch that I really want to have a good go with - stay tuned - Jacqueline xx.

Hi there folks. This is the first of two postings today. Firstly - I have created a card using my Mermaid digi. She will be entered into the Sunday Sketch and Stamp challenge which you can find here . I don't know if you can tell but she was painted with pearlescent (yikes - bet I spelt that wrong!) paints and the fibres are meant to look like seaweed. Please let me know if you like her as I am thinking of selling her as a download. Back soon - Jacqueline xx.

Hello everyone. I forgot to wish you all a Happy Easter yesterday - how rude of me! So HAPPY EASTER, HAPPY BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY - hope you are all well. Today I have been working hard on a new digi-stamp (see a sneaky peek below), haven't had time to make anything with her yet but I'm sure I will soon as there are plenty of  exciting challenges comming up. See you soon - Jacqueline xx.

Hi folks - here is my entry for this week's Pollycraft Monday Challenge. We only had a week for this one and I didn't think I'd make it, but the craft fair I have been working soooo hard for has been cancelled - again. So I was able to slow down and complete this card. To view this challenge click here  . Receipe: Papers - 3 various from stash + Stampin' Up Real Red. Embellishments - 3 red buttons. Ribbons - 1 blue + 1 red. Stamped Image - Pirate Ethan ( from Pollycraft. Thank you I love him!) Bye for now - Jacqueline xx.