Phoenix Inspirations

It's time for another challenge at  Addicted to Stamps  and this week the challenge is 'Addicted to Blue' - that means creating a card with the predominant colour of Blue. My card has been made using Butterfly Prints (Stampin' Up) and various shades of blue - take a look I really love the hound's tooth pattern of this stamp and it looks great in the blue don't you think? My colours are Bashful Blue, Taken with Teal and Pacific Point. Each stamped butterfly has been stamped and cut out and then layered on to a punched butterfly in the same colour blue. The sentiment has been stamped in Bashful Blue. My fellow team mates have made some lovely cards this week so please do hop over to the  blog  and take a look - you never know you might just want to join in! Thanks for looking - see you soon - Jacqueline xx

That's right and that can only mean one thing - Wimbledon!! And if you hop over to the  Make My Monday  challenge blog you will see that the challenge there is all about Strawberries and Cream as we have a colour challenge this week - RED, GREEN & CREAM/WHITE. Take a look at my card There's hardly any stamping on this easel card - just card stock in the required colours.. My cream card stock has been run though a Swiss Dots EF and my butterflies have been die cut and layered. I used the 2 Step Bird punch for my leaves and the Boho Blossoms punch for the flowers. My sentiment is from the Butterfly Prints set - here's a couple of close ups Have a great week and enjoy the tennis - don't forget to take a look at the blog to see what my team mates have made this week and I'll see you soon - Jacqueline xx

Next Tuesday (10th) is the start of my workshops for 2012 and we will be kicking off with a Perforated Bookmark Card. Intrigued?..... take a look The panel on the right hand side of the card is perforated and can be removed to use as a bookmark. A nice easy project I think to start the New Year! It uses a combination of stamp sets - Simply Soft, Precious Butterflies and Butterfly Prints all on top of a brayered background. As always a step by step tutorial will be available after the workshop and details will appear in my side bar should you wish to have a go at making this yourself. I have a little friend hiding behind my laptop as I type this post - would you like to see him? He's sulking because I have taken the Christmas decorations down and he can no longer play Tarzan on the tinsel!! See you soon - 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

It's time for another challenge at the  Simply Stampin'  challenge blog, the dt position is still open and so I am having another go with this week's challenge - Pearls and Swirls. I started with a blank 5" x 5" card and using Pear Pizzazz stamped the border from Vintage Vogue. I then added a mat of Poppy Parade card stock and another of Very Vanilla. I stamped the Vintage Vogue border again and in the middle I stamped the swirly leaf flourish. The Vintage Vogue flowers were stamped in Poppy Parade ink, cut out and placed on the card using 3D foam pads. I placed a pearl in the middle of each one. I then stamped one of the butterflies from Butterfly Prints - the one with the swirly pattern inside and that was also stuck on with 3D foam pads. It's been a busy day today - I have had my Mum, Dad and Grandad over for lunch and also my Mother - in - law so I'm looking forward to having a rest now and a glass of wine! Hope you all had a lovely weekend - se...

Yay - I've found a new challenge blog - CAS-ual Fridays  and the theme for this first challenge is 'Texting Skills' Basically you have to make a card with some text on it - not just a simple sentiment. Hmmm bit of a tall order if you don't have any text stamps. I do however have this cute butterfly from the Butterfly Prints set, so I stamped him and punched him out three times. I then decided to create a background from my Best Wishes stamp I masked off sections of the card so that there was a clear space in which to mount my butterflies and it was all stamped with Cherry Cobbler ink. The dotted line was made using a stamp from Hot off the Press bought absolutely years ago but rarely used. Thanks for stopping by to take a look - bye for now - Jacqueline xx.

This is such a cool technique - it's called Embedded Embossing and it is so easy. So easy in fact that it only took a matter of moments to do a little tutorial for you. But first my card. I came across the technique when I looked to see what the challenge was today on Splitcoast Stampers.  You get together the components of your card - using punched out shapes or die cuts, stick them onto your card and then run them through an embossing folder on your Cuttlebug (other die cutting machines are available!). I used a base of Sage Shadow with two strips of Very Vanilla and Cherry Cobbler stuck on with a glue stick. I stamped a small motif with Pocket Silhouettes on the Very Vanilla and then stamped the butterfly from Butterfly Prints three times onto some scrap. These were punched out using the butterfly punch. They were then stuck down half on the Sage Shadow and half on the Cherry Cobbler. Three tiny butterflies were then stuck on in the top right hand corner. This was then run thr...

Good morning - hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. Today I have a birthday card to share with you - one I made for my Daughter Briony . This is a combination of Old Olive and Cameo Coral. I used a technique I invented for myself by inking up my stamp (from the Just Believe set) with Old Olive ink, and then removing with a damp cotton bud the parts I want a different colour (ie the flower heads). With a clean cotton bud I pick up ink from the Cameo Coral pad and add it to parts I want - the flower heads. The butterfly is from Butterfly Prints and it is punched out using the butterfly punch - I also added a bit of bling - well it was her 19th birthday after all! Well that's me done for today - I'm off now to do more playing. I am in the middle of creating another mini album this time made out of paper bags. It's in preparation for my workshop on Thursday night. OK so have a good weekend - especially if you are in the area visiting the Stitch and Creative Crafts Show -...

Today's card follows the sketch from this week's *MOJO MONDAY*   challenge   I decided to use up some of the retired card stock I had left and I'm not really sure I'm happy with the result. The colours are Mellow Moss and Ruby Red - which did look O.K. But then I added the black ribbon and I think that was my mistake - what do you think? The stamp sets used were Flight of the Butterfly and Butterfly Prints with a bit of two step stamping again. I also added a few black gems and a couple of brads to hold the ribbon on. Thanks for stopping by, see you soon - Jacqueline xx.

Butterflies are my favourite things to put on cards and I have several stamps and punches to use. The one I used today cuts the butterfly's wings but not the body. I have also used the Just Believe stamp set, the sentiment from Butterfly Prints and the colours Certain Celery and Always Artichoke.  This is a very short post today. I've just got back from a weekend away and I've got two meetings later today - hope I can fit in some crafting too! - Bye for now - Jacqueline xx.

Today was my first workshop of 2011. I had 5 lovely ladies come and squeeze around my dinning room table - and this is what we made This is the front of the card and it uses all Stampin' Up products. The square card is a piece of Very Vanilla 5 1/4" x 10 1/2" folded in half. The front piece is Baja Breeze which has been stamped with Baja Breeze and Night of Navy inks using the Pocket Silhouettes stamp set. The sentiment is from the Butterfly Prints set and the little butterfly from the Flight of the Butterfly. A piece of the Elegant Soiree DSP has been scalloped and stuck at the bottom - all the edges have been inked with Night of Navy. Here is the inside The inside has been decorated a little like the front however a  piece of the DSP was attached to the top of the card to make a stand out pelmet from which to suspend the butterflies. Here is a close up The butterflies have been attached using small strips of acetate so it looks like they are flying out of the card....

Happy New Year to everyone - hope it's a good one. Hope you all had a lovely Christmas. Mine was very strange. Because of the snow and travel problems me and my husband had to spend Christmas apart so that was very sad. But that is in the past - it's a new year and time for some crafting! Today's effort was inspired by the Clean and Simple challenge on the Splitcoast Stampers site. It uses the 'Kissing' technique - you take a large stamp (in this case the scribble tree from Wondrous Gift), ink it up (Cherry Cobbler) and place it face up on your work top. Then you take a smaller block stamp  (Flight of the Butterfly) and place that on top of the large stamp and then you stamp it on to your paper. The image from the large stamp takes on the shape of the block stamp. I also used Simply Said to stamp around the card edge and on to the the card in the middle and the sentiment is from Butterfly Prints. I am off now to blog hop around all my favourite blogs - if you lea...

Golly - it has been over a week since my last post - did you miss me? I have been away for a few days visiting family but now I'm back and getting back into the swing of things again. Lucky me - only been home a little while when my new stash arrived (thanks Sue) and look what I have made This uses the new Butterfly Prints stamp set and I love it. It fits nicely into the butterfly punch too. I used some of the card from the Neutrals range - Crumb Cake and Basic Black along with Ruby Red and I also used one of my old favourites - Pocket Silhouettes. Please pop back soon as I also have Ornate Flowers to try out next - bye for now - Jacqueline xx.