Phoenix Inspirations

I have been meaning to join in with this challenge blog for a while now but I've only just got round to doing so. Not only does this blog raise awareness of the charity but if you send them your card they can sell it to raise much needed funds - did you realise that they have to find 4 million pounds a year? Anyway I'm having a go, here is my card The challenge is to produce a card that is Black and White and one other colour. You can use tones of the third colour and Grey. So today I have combined one of my own stamps and the fern frond from Growing Green. My third colour was red as when I designed this stamp I had poppies in mind. I coloured it in with Promarkers and hand drew the frame with a black fine liner. As in my previous card I masked off the flowers with post it notes to enable me to over lap and add depth. Please pop over and check out the St Luke's challenge and I will be back soon - Jacqueline xx

Hello - where is all the time going this week - it seems to be rushing by at great speed. I'll tell you something - I haven't stopped still long this week so far either. I've been up to my eyes in workshops, stamp making and dt work - not that I don't love it  I'm having a whale of a time, just wish I had a little time to stop and catch my breath! I'm so grateful that I am so busy, there have been times in my life when I have been very low but discovering crafting and blogging and meeting all my crafty friends on line has been quite a life saver. Anyway I made loads of new stamps this week but didn't have chance to put them up on the web site as I sold most of them at a workshop I took on Tuesday night. As soon as I have made more - you will be the first to know. I have managed a bit of crafting for no reason other than to craft and came up with this This is a one layer card made by stamping and masking. I drew a feint frame in pencil and then started by

Wow - we are on challenge no. 8 this week and the challenge is - LACE & PEARLS. We are still vintage style but then you knew that didn't you! Here is my card for the DT For my card I have used some of Stampin' Up's Vintage Springtime DSP. I have layered it up with some Regal Rose and Very Vanilla card stock. The stamps I have used are from the Baby Blossoms set and they are stamped in Regal Rose, Rose Red and Always Artichoke inks. The lace border is made with lace sent to me a while ago by my fellow DT - Cath and has a little piece of pink organza ribbon woven through it. A pearl bead has also been threaded on in the middle. I really must apologise for the pearls in the centers of my flowers - it took me ages riffling around in my gem box only to realise that I had run out of sticky pearls so I raided some past projects and stole some! The flash on my camera though has picked up that they don't really match - doh! It would be really great to see you over on the

Good afternoon - hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. Today I have added some new images to my stamp web site - found HERE.  They are digi stamps which can be downloaded and printed for you to create your own projects - I'm sure that you are all familiar with the process. So today I thought that I would show off one of my images and how it can be used. She is an Oriental Lady who looks great coloured in with red and black Promarkers - take a look The background paper has been created by taking some red paper and stamping a flower image randomly. This stamp is one that came free with the Craft Stamper magazine a while ago. The oriental logo is from a Judy Kins Kanji Cube and says 'Happiness'. If you like Lily the Oriental Lady she is available for download now. She will be e-mailed to you in a zipped jpeg file upon receipt of payment and she will cost you just £1.00. Thanks for stopping by, see you again soon - Jacqueline xx.

It's taken me most of the day to complete this card - Louis (our 10 week old kitten) has discovered my craft room. I've tried to keep the door closed but 9 times out of 10 he's darted in before you can blink. take a look Yes - he is licking my ruler! Any way he is asleep now so I am able to show you the card that I finally got finished. It features my new set Growing  Green this time stamped on to water colour paper with a black Versa Fine ink pad The images have been coloured in using water colour pencils and then blended with an aqua painter. We did cards like this last night at my monthly workshop - I used my new 2 Step owl punch that time, but that as they say is another story! See you again soon - Jacqueline xx

I think I have mentioned before that this is one of my favourite challenge blogs - mainly 'cos I just love Stampin' Up products, and what better place to show off my new Growing Green set than over on the Simply Stampin'  challenge blog. We had a sketch this week: And my card looks like this: I have used Garden Green, Ruby Red and Whisper White, the stamp set as I said before is my NEW(!) Growing Green set but the sentiment is from Just Believe. Looks a bit Christmassy don't you think - that wasn't my intention, I think it must be the colours I used! I have some great ideas for this set - please do join me again to see what they are - bye for now - Jacqueline xx

This is a challenge that I haven't entered for a while but this week I really liked the sketch - find it here . It uses some silk flowers that I have had forever and some paper that would you believe came from the supermarket Lidl - 50 sheets for just £2.99! Any way - here is my card That's it for today folks - I have to dash as I have a meeting at 7pm tonight. It's taken me all day to prepare for it too - not much time for crafting. I will have to make up for it tomorrow!! See you soon - Jacqueline xx.

We are still concentrating on VINTAGE over on the Make My Monday  challenge blog and this week it's all things shabby. The challenge is produce work that has been CRUMPLED or TORN . Well this one had me thinking but after a rummage through my stash drawer I found my Hot off the Press 'Botanical Ephemera' book. There are some fabulous images in there just right for some vintage shabby chic - take a look The Fuchsia images were cut from the book and stuck down on to a piece of cream paper that had been ripped around the edges - they were inked with Tea Dye DI also. The embossed swirl down the side is a stamp (also from Hot off the Press) and was embossed with gold powder. Hope you are able to join in the challenge this week - it would be great to see your work too. Bye for now - Jacqueline xx.

The theme this week at Less is More  is CIRCLES and I had the perfect stamp for the challenge. It's from the Just Believe set and looks great in multiples - take a look The colours I have used are: Regal Rose, Rose Red and Cherry Cobbler, the sentiment is from Just Believe too. This is quite a dimensional card as the two paler circles have been 3D'd over the top of the three below them that had been 3D'd also - not one for posting I think! Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend - despite the rain!! - bye for now - Jacqueline xx

I've been at the brayer again - well it is my favourite tool of choice when it comes to crafting! This time I have teamed it up with some blue ink and one of my own stamps - take a look This is my Solid Leaf Branch and it looks great stamped more than once before re-inking. The moon was made using another favourite tool - the post it note and the sentiment is from the Stampin' Up set Just Believe. The inks I have used are also Stampin' Up and are Bordering Blue and Not Quite Navy. It's been a strange day today - I haven't had time for any crafting 'til now (8.30pm) I had a meeting to show someone around our Village Hall this morning, she was hoping to do Pilates classes, this was followed by me helping out at the local Playgroup (sports day!!!) and then I had a meeting in the afternoon. But I still have to do some crafting before I can rest for the day! Mind you - it won't be for long as Torchwood is on later and there is a glass of wine with my name on it

Yesterday was Tuesday and my regular monthly crafting workshop. This time we tried out the One Sheet Wonder (minus the Mexican with the bad accent!). Stampin' Up stamp sets are perfect for this as their little boxes contain many coordinating stamps and sentiments. I made each participant a template I had designed and showed them how to stamp onto the back of the template so that when they turned it back over they could easily cut out each section. It may help to see what I mean from my photos. These stamps are from the Simply Said set. Yesterday I did the same thing but using the Greenhouse Garden set. This is the template I made Now for some reason it hasn't printed as I intended - it missed off a couple of sections on the bottom -but you get the idea. So, to summarise: take your template, stamp on the back cramming on as many images as possible, turn back over and cut out your sections. Now, you can make eight 5" x 5" card with this one sheet. Mount the se

Yes that's right it's our 6th challenge already over on the Make My Monday  challenge blog. This is going to be a quick one - it's 4am in the morning here. I can't sleep as I have a very sore throat and earache. I'm just waiting for the painkillers to kick in before I go back to bad! Any way the theme is VINTAGE and the challenge is to include some EMBOSSING . Here is my card for the dt I have used a cream card blank and a piece of Chocolate Chip card stock. The cs has been stamped with Versamark ink, sprinkled with gold embossing powder and then set with a heat gun - the stamp I used was from Stampin' Up Vintage Vogue. I then ink distressed some paper on to which I had downloaded some vintage music and then added some butterflies. Hope you had a great weekend - please spare a thought if you can for my nephew Matthew today - he is having surgery later on a suspected brain tumour. It's a worrying time - bye for now - Jacqueline xx

.....is the theme for this week's challenge at the Simply Stampin'  challenge blog. As they are a challenge blog for everyone who loves Stampin' Up products they want to see something ie a stamp image or sentiment that is Stampin' Up on all of the projects we make. Needless to say - this is one of my most favourite of challenges! This week I have made a notebook. I always recycle the backs of note pads as they are a great source of chipboard and this time I covered it in white paper. I recycled an old sketch pad, cut the paper to size and bound it together with the covers with my Zutter Bind it All machine So to prevent this note book remaining naked I added some Sahara Sand card stock and some Vintage Springtime DSP. Here is the back of the book I then drew some inspiration from one of the Simply Stampin' design team - Angela. This is the piece that caught my eye - here (scroll down a little). And here is my interpretation I used my Baby Blossoms stamp set,

Good morning - yay nearly the weekend! Today's card covers two challenges and uses the colours from Simply Stampin' and a sketch from a new challenge blog Fetch A Sketch and here is my card Sorry about the dodgy camera work - that dark panel is not black but blue - honest!! Thanks for stopping by - see you soon - Jacqueline xx.

I have two cards to show you today - both are made using one of my own designs. The first is the stamp just inked with a black ink pad The next one is not my style at at all usually however I got an idea in my head and I just had to see it through This was stamped on a piece of white card stock and coloured with Promarkers and then mounted onto black paper. Just the head of the flower was then stamped to make a sort of frame and also coloured with Promarkers. You will also notice that I went a bit mad with the butterflies - I made a bit of a mess with my ink in places and they are covering up all my smudges!! If you like this stamp it is available on my website - see the tab at the top. Thanks for stopping by today - see you soon - Jacqueline xx.

Did you miss me? I've been away for nearly a week and I am suffering from crafting withdrawal symptoms. I have done a little crafting (lots to catch up on) and I thought that I might play the What's on your Workdesk Wednesday game again. I used to play along a while ago but this morning on opening the craft room door I was greeted with THE most untidy desk ever and I thought that I would photograph it and show you all! I really have surpassed myself! The iron works so much better in my craft room than it does with my clothes (hee hee) and today it is not only hiding a DT piece I'm working on but flattening it too - I was doing some embossing and the whole thing curled up. I've also been working on some ATCs so there are loads of scraps littering the desk too. Today is also the day that we have had Louis for two weeks and to celebrate I bought him a scratching pole. It's not that he is damaging the furniture oh no - it's my legs! I think he likes it. WOYWW c

Today on the Make My Monday  challenge blog the monthly theme has changed to VINTAGE. The first week kicks off with  a colour theme take a look To go with my Brown and Cream I chose Pink  I have used Very Vanilla card stock along with some Early Espresso. The pink is some from my local craft shop. I distressed the edges of the brown with the edge of my scissors to give rough, shabby effect. The stamps are from Stampin' Up - Vintage Vogue and I have used chocolate Chip and Pretty in Pink inks. Now it's your turn - hop on over and have a go - bye for now - Jacqueline xx.