Phoenix Inspirations

Continuing our RED/GREEN/CREAM themed challenge, for this week's Mid-week Motivation on  Make My Monday  I have created a waterfall card with...................strawberries!!! (I have included a pic of the inside but you must visit the  Challenge blog  to find out why!) I used card stock from my stash drawer for this card however I did use the Everything Eleanor and Precious Butterflies stamp sets. My strawberry is an old Craft Stamper mag freebie coloured with markers. There's still time to take part in the challenge - it doesn't have to be a summery card - these colours look great for Christmas too - see you over there? - Jacqueline xx

This is our last week of challenges for our MEN AND BOYS  theme and this week we want to see your male cards with a TIME theme, it's also the last chance for you to get your hands on our fabulous prize - details of which you will find over on the  Make My Monday Blog . For my card today I went with a CAS style and used one of the free stamps from Craft Stamper Magazine - take a look I have also followed the sketch over on this week's  Less is More Challenge To colour my background I have used Stampin' Up inks - Really Rust and Close to Cocoa, I also used the 'splodge' stamp from French Foliage. Don't forget to pop on over to the  MMM blog  and check out all the other Time themed cards made by my fellow team mates. Thanks for looking - Jacqueline xx

As I said in yesterday's post it's my wedding anniversary today. Me and my husband have been married 21 years today. Unfortunately he's in Stockholm at the moment but this is the card that's waiting for him when he gets home See the string on the side? If you pull it looks like this and then this Here is a close up of the 'disolving' picture This card uses Elegant Soiree DSP - retired from Stampin' Up and my Lovely as a Tree stamp set. The images have been coloured with my Stampin' Write markers. I got the instructions for making this card from this month's Craft Stamper mag - although I found that they were very difficult to follow and the pull does not pull very smoothly. I think it looks OK though and I'm sure my husband will love it! See you soon - Jacqueline xx

I've just got back from visiting my mum and dad. Dad's been having some more of his chemo treatment. He also has to have some radiotherapy as his cancer has moved to his neck. It's been very hard this last visit as my poor old dad has had to have 12 teeth out to prevent any infection via his teeth to the bone in his jaw - he's been in a lot of pain to say the least. So I got home late last night - missing Valentine's Day with my husband only to find that he would be leaving for Stockholm at 4am this morning, it's our wedding anniversary tomorrow too and we will miss it. Hopefully we can celebrate when he gets home on Friday. I did manage to do a little crafting today as my friend Louise came round to play. We had decided that we would try and make the Moving Pictures card from this month's Craft Stamper mag - I will show you the results of that tomorrow - it's safe to say that I probably won't be making it again any time soon as it was quite a com...

Today is the 'Add An Extra' challenge over on the  52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown  and I should have scheduled this last night ......... but I was tired and I thought that I would do it early this morning ................. but I slept in .................. and then I had to get up in a rush to go shopping - doh - failed all round!! Anyway here are my dt cards for my added extra - RHINESTONES The top card uses some Stampin' Up card stock in Lucky Limeade and Real Red. My Craft Stamper Mag freebie was stamped on to Very Vanilla and coloured using Stampin' Write markers. There are rhinestones on the end of the elf's cap, the holly berries, the sentiment label and the scallop edge. No. 2 card is a Hero Arts stamp (I think!) and is stamped in Old Olive ink. Real Red stars are stamped above the trees and then the trees on the centre label have been embellished with ruby red flat backed gems. Our top 5 have been announced today too - did you win? Why not pop ...

It's theme time over at  52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown  and the theme is CHRISTMAS FLOWERS Here are my cards The first card has been made using one of my Craft Stamper magazine freebies and it's been coloured using Stampin' Write markers - Poppy Parade and Pear Pizzazz. After being mounted on to squares of Crumb Cake I decorated the centres with some flat backed gems. This card is a mish mash of die cuts and punches and a few silk leaves have been thrown in for good measure! Please pop over to the blog to take a look and please pop over and visit my partner in crime -  Mynnette  - she's created something very special too. Bye for now - Jacqueline xx

I have another clean and simple card for you today using one of my favourite Christmas stamps - come and take a look The large Noel sentiment stamp is a Clarity Stamp - you may recognise it from the Create and Craft shows with Barbara Gray. The poinsettia stamp in the middle is a freebie from the Craft Stamper mag - I've had it a couple of years now but it always comes out for Christmas! I coloured it with my Stampin' write markers - Poppy Parade and Lucky Limeade. If you are interested there is a tutorial on how I made this card over on the  Make My Monday  challenge blog. Thanks for looking - see you soon - Jacqueline xx

It's week 24 at  Make My Monday  and we are in Christmas mode. This week we want to see Clean and Simple cards with emphasis on the sentiment. here is my contribution to this week's DT line up My huge sentiment stamp is from Clarity Stamps and  has been heat embossed in gold. The centre of the O has been removed and the ornament stamp (a freebie from the Craft Stamper mag) has been stamped inside the card. I then stamped it again on some scrap and coloured and cut out the baubles. They were then stuck on using 3D foam pads. Please pop over and take a look - we are also having a DT Call too if you fancy joining us. Details are on the blog or in the side bar. Bye for now - Jacqueline xx

It's week 16 at the  Make My Monday  challenge blog and this week the challenge is to incorporate some metal into your card or project. This was a fun one to do - I still don't know if I have yet fully grasped the whole Steampunk style but here goes The image (if I remember correctly) comes from the Graphics Fairy, it's printed on to cream card and the edges have been sponged with Really Rust and Pumpkin Pie inks. The flowers have been stamped using one of the free Craft Stamper Mag stamps and I have added a couple of cogs to the top two and a Tim Holtz pointer to the bottom one. There is a piece of ball chain threaded through the lace and added to this are the ends of two zips. Hope you are able to join in this week or at least pop over to see what my lovely design team have come up with this week. See you soon - Jacqueline xx

Good morning everyone - I honestly didn't think I was going to make it this morning as my son decided to re-organise his room last night and that included moving his computer. We lost our internet connection all last night and only managed to get it back at 9am this morning. That mean't I was late getting the challenge up on the  Make My Monday  blog - but it's there now and you can hop over and take a look at our brand new theme and challenge. This month my lovely dt colleague Cath has chosen STEAMPUNK for our theme and she kicks off by challenging us to make a Steampunk inspired ATC. Here's mine I have used a 2.5" x 3.5" piece of card stock and stamped it with a Tim Holtz  Components stamp from his Stampers Anonymous range - this one being Time. I then inked it with Brushed Corduroy DI. I then added some pieces of Tim Holtz Idea-Ology  - a metal pointer and some ball chain. The pocket watch is a past free stamp from the cover of Craft Stamper mag and it h...

It's no surprise that this card has taken me all day to make - Bev came round about 11.30 this morning so say no more!! I started with a piece of Stampin' Up DSP and some pink dotty paper that I can't remember where it came from.  Next came the stamp - free from the cover of Craft Stamper magazine, a cute little flower from Polka Doodles. Add together some marker pens, flowers and foliage - this is what you get But that's not all - it opens out into this easel card The sentiment in the middle is from Stampin' Up set Simply Said and says -'a friend is someone who makes it easy'- it's not easy to see in these pics I'm sorry my photos are so terrible but the light in my craft room today is horrendous - it has also rained all day - so much for the Bank Holiday! Thanks for stopping by and if you are interested I am entering my card to the following challenges Polka Doodles  - Spots and Dots. Stampin' B's  - Round or Square Easel Cards. Th...

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.

Hi all - did everyone have a good weekend? I hope yours was better than mine - transport issues and my printer blew up. I managed to knab my husband's printer but it only does black and white, I started to use it and then ...... ran out of paper! I have two meetings aswell this week both of which need things printed. These things are sent to try us I suppose....... anyway it is the start of a brand new week and I have two cards to share with you. They are both very similar - but not the same. (I do try to make all my cards unique). They are both made using Stampin' Up stamp set Autumn Days and S'U cardstock and inks in More Mustard, Really Rust and Chocolate Chip. The sentiment in the middle is the freebie from the Craft Stamper magazine. Here are some closer views OK - so, short and sweet today - hope you get time to leave me a comment - it's always appreciated. Bye for now - Jacqueline xx.

What a lovely sunny 1st of September we are having - yikes September, time just seems to be racing by! Today I thought I would share with you a challenge card. It isn't a blog challenge as usual but one set for me by one of the ladies of my craft group. I normally challenge them but this month the tables have been turned and each of my ladies have set me a challenge. This is 'A birthday card suitable for a man'. Colour was my choice but I had to include 2 decorative papers, 1 stamp, a sentiment and 3 brads. How did I do? My 2 decorative papers came from the Sea Glass range from K & Company and I also cut out some of the images of one piece to decoupage. My 1 stamp is the seashell which was a freebie on the cover of Craft Stamper magazine and I put my 'Happy Birthday' sentiment on a tab secured with the 3 brads. The edges of all the paper and card stock were inked with Brushed Corduroy distress ink. Now I can't tell you who set this challenge as the game i...

Hello folks - how are we today? Well I hope. Here is a picture of a book I made today It was inspired by the sketch over on Tuesday Morning Sketches  and I am going to enter it into this week's challenge. As you can see - I rotated it about 90 degrees, I also used an illustration instead of a stamp - hope that is O.K. The pic is from the Craft Stamper Magazine  web site, just go to the download page - they have got some lovely vintage pics - for free! and if you are interested to see how I made this book, please pop over to my other blog deezines creations   and take a look - I have put instructions there. Hope you like this effort, I have a craft group tonight then I am off for a long weekend with my mum - hope the weather improves!! See you soon - Jacqueline xx.

I love making books, be it memory books or just plain notebooks - I love to make them and customise them. This is one I made today: She was inspired by I sketch I saw on Tuesday Morning Sketches  and I didn't just want to make a card this time. So I used some cereal boxes - 4 pieces 15 1/2 cm by 22cm and I glued them together. I glued the picture sides together so it wouldn't show through my paper when I came to cover it. I then covered over them with brown wrapping paper - I bought it from my local Post Office - and then I decorated them. I used some Anna Griffin blue polka dot paper and inked it with my Tim Holtz distress ink - Brushed Cordouroy and stamped some swirls using Stampin' Up inks Bordering Blue and Night of Navy. The vintage lady is from the Craft Stamper Magazine  web site - I just ripped the edges and inked them. The flowers are punched from vintage papers using the Stampin' Up 5 petal flower punch and again are distressed and inked. I stuck them on with...

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, 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.

Mother's Day today, bit upset - no gifts. Had a card from my son but nothing from my daughter. She was out clubbing 'till 3.30 this morning and it looks like she has forgotten. Never mind I will spend the day crafting to cheer myself up. If, like me, you are an avid reader of Craft Stamper magazine you will know that they have just finished a three part series on Art Journaling. I have also seen examples of this on other people's blogs, and I thought "What a lovely idea".(Check out "Rosie's Arty Stuff" blog for some wonderful inspiration). I have decided to make my journal as a series of pages - one for each month - which I will then bind when it is finished. I completed January's today as you can see from the picture below. The inspiration came from all the snowy weather we experienced and one of my favourite carols - "In The Bleak Mid-Winter" by Christina Rosetti, and of course I used plenty of Stampin' Up materials. Next I thi...