Phoenix Inspirations

 The sun is starting to shine a bit more and the days are getting longer - Spring is finally here!! It’s lovely to hear all the birds singing too and watching them building their nests. Today’s card is very spring like and has lots of birds. It’s an easel card which is one of my favourites to make and they do look quite stunning. I am entering this card into the challenge over at  Make My Monday #223 National Picture of a Bird  I’m off to sit in the garden for 5 minutes with a cup of coffee and enjoy the sunshine - hope you’re having a good day too - see you soon xx

Today's card is one that has sort of evolved into something else as I was making it! I started off with my wisteria image from the hostess set Soft Spring. I had seen it used on a friend's blog and I was inspired to use it again. Change no. 1 - I suddenly decided to change the colour from a soft violet shade to the bright yellow of a laburnum blossom. Here's the card I didn't like it! There was no place for a sentiment and it turned out very flimsy. Change no. 2 - I turned it into an easel card I used a darker green over my leaves and used a base of Garden Green card stock and I'm pleased to say I like it a lot better now! I am entering this card into the challenges over at Make My Monday Challenge Blog the theme is  SPRING FLOWERS Challenge Up Your Life FOCUS ON FLOWERS Inkspirational It's been a very blustery day in Bridgnorth today although it's still lovely and sunny - too windy for washing though ...

I have been trying to stretch myself recently - creatively. In a recent card swap I was sent a certain amount of materials which I had to use. They included die cuts, mesh, gems and cotton. I was stumped for a while but not one to give up I set out to find a style of card first. I thought about an easel card and then decided to go a bit further and do a twisted easel card. Great I thought - perfect. But then I thought what if ........... and then I made this Instead of a flat panel I made a box frame. Around my frame I added the mesh and inside it I stamped my panel with images from Stampin' Up's Papaya Collage. The die cuts were added along with the gems and the cotton twine. Now for the base. More mesh, more die cuts and gems and to prop up the easel a square panel stamped with Papaya Collage. I don't usually make cards with this much on it - I'm a clean and simple kind of crafter however, every once in a while I surprise myself!...

Found a rare few moments to pay lately so decided to make an easel card. I also got some gorgeous free stamps on a magazines and threw those into the mix too - take a look I used my Windows Framelits to cut the shape of the card and also embossed them with the Mosaic embossing folder. This card was used to day as a birthday card for a very special Aunt - hope she liked it! See you soon xx

We have a lovely sketch for you this week at  Addicted to Stamps  - take a look at what Kylie has designed for us Here is the card I made I broke in a new set for this card - Bright Blossoms and made an easel card using some blue, red and white card stock. Here's what it looks like closed The ribbon is seam binding and some of the images have been raised up on 3D foam pads. Inks used were Real Red, Pacific Point and Certain Celery - the dt have made some beautiful cards please do pop on over and take a look. I have another card for you later using this sketch - it also uses the colours from this week's Make My Monday challenge so please be sure to pop back - see you soon - Jacqueline xx

It's Mid-week Motivation time over on  Make My Monday  and for it I made another Butterfly Easel Card - I've made it with some nesting butterfly dies on my Cuttlebug I used some Bazzill Basics card stock along with some yellow from my stash drawer and ran one of the yellow butterflies through a Swiss Dots embossing folder. A sentiment and some purple flat backed gems add a finishing touch. Hoe are you getting on with these colours this week? - the challenge can be found HERE  if you are interested and it would be great to see you over there having a go - 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

It was my birthday yesterday and amongst my many pressies I received some nesting butterfly dies. I was over the moon as a while ago I had seen  THIS  card on  VICKY'S  blog and was dying to recreate it. My card looks like this My card stock was folded in half and the die placed on the card stock just a little above the fold so that it made a shaped card. I used my cuttlebug. The butterfly was then die cut again - whole and used to make an easel card. There are four dies in the set and I cut a number of them to layer up on the card - I then added a sentiment and a few gems to finish it off. Here's what it looks like folded down ready to be posted Pop back tomorrow and I will share with you some of the amazing hand made cards i received from some of my crafty friends - see you soon - Jacqueline xx

Morning all - it's Monday again so that means it's time for a new challenge over at  Make My Monday . This week the challenge is to make a New Life card. It has to be spring themed too as that's this month's theme. So New Life can include such things as Easter, Babies, Animals or even a New Home. I chose to do an Easter card - the egg stamp in Nature Walk is excellent for this - take a look This is a twisted easel card and I have repeat stamped the eggs and then coloured them in using pencils in pastel shades. (Don't you think they look a bit like choccie mini eggs?) The bird from Nature Walk fits in perfectly as does my lovely Young Vermillion. To prop up the card I have added a nest and eggs bought locally at a shop in town. Punched flowers and pearls add a finishing touch (and also hide a couple of smudges!!!). Thanks for looking - please pop over to the blog and take a look at what my fellow DT ladies have done too - see you soon - Jacqueline xx

It's time for  52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown  again and this week we have a *THEME* - take a look   My first card features a Polar Bear - star gazing It's an easel card attached to a drawer - great for combining cards and gifts in one and this one would hold a lot of Christmas choccies I think!! Here's a close up It's a Pollycraft digi image and the backing papers are from Pollycraft too - some I purchased a couple of years ago. My image has been coloured using Promarkers. My second card is equally as cute Three reindeer, one with a red nose - I wonder who he could be?! These were made using my 2 Step Owl Punch - a couple of alterations here and there and some googly eyes. Don't for get to visit  Mynnette  - she's done some lovely cards too and then pop over to see the challenge - you might even want to take part! Bye for now - Jacqueline xx

It's week 27 at the  Make My Monday  challenge blog. All the details are over there on the blog and this week we want to see some - SEASONAL GLITTER. mmmmmmmmm glitter - take a look This is an old favourite, one of the first stamps I ever bought - my poinsettia medallion. Instead of going traditional and red with this I went for white. It was stamped and embossed in gold several times and layered up. The  leaves were then glittered in green. It was then layered onto some green card stock and I used a holly punch in the corners. Here is another view I decided to make it into an easel card. And then I decided to make it into a drawer gift box. Hope you have time to join in - or at least pop over to see our two new dt girlies and our Guest Designer. Bye for now - Jacqueline xx

What a lovely way to start the week don't you think? I have had a great weekend watching all the rugby - wasn't the England match fantastic? Here is a picture of the card I gave my husband this morning I love making these 3D flowers - this time I have stamped the flowers in black on to red card and used one of them to prop open my easel card. I also did some faux stitching around the edge. Hope you all have a fab Valentine's Day - we don't do much today as it is our wedding anniversary on Wednesday and we shall celebrate then. Bye for now folks - Jacqueline xx.

I really do not know where all my time has gone this week - I've had meetings (boring), I went to a Stampin' Up party (fab) and I helped out at the local Mother and Toddler group (exhausting) and last night I had my monthly craft workshop. I set my ladies a challenge to make Christmas cards and matching gift tags and the results are astounding. The time and effort that they have put into their projects is amazing - I'm so proud of them. Trouble is I now have to choose a winner - that is going to be sooooooo difficult! Anyway this is what we made last night These little 4" x 4" boxes boxes open up easel - card style to reveal little calendars on top of a small drawer suitable for storing post - it notes, stamps paper clips etc. These projects use my new favourite stamp set - Just Believe, Greenhouse Garden and my new favourite colour Baja Breeze - doesn't it look absolutely gorgeous with the dusky brown? Well my time is going to even busier this weekend as ...

A little while ago my friend Bev lent me some of her Stampin' Up sets to play with. You have already seen the Loads of Love and now it is the turn of Whimsical Wings. It is a lovely set but only available as a Level 2 Hostess Gift. Here's what I made I managed to make 3 cards before she snaffled it back! I used S'U card stock and inks - left is Pale Plum and Mellow Moss, right is Night of Navy and Bordering Blue and the center is an easel card using Perfect Plum and a touch of Pale Plum. They all had Very Vanilla as a base. (Except the one on the left - I don't know where that came from!) Hope every one has enjoyed their weekend, see you soon - Jacqueline xx

So a little bird told me today - 'it's only 18 weeks 'till Christmas' - yikes that's not long is it? Still I have been planning ahead and I have a fair few cards made for the festive season. Including the one I made today for the Die Cut Dreams  Christmas challenge blog. The theme this week is 'Poinsettia' and I dug out a stamp that I haven't used for absolutely ages. It's from Creative Expressions and is a gorgeous Poinsettia medallion. The image has been stamped onto decorative Christmas paper and embossed with gold embossing powder. I stamped about 5 images and then cut them out getting a bit smaller with every one. I then layered them up with 3D foam pads. The stars in the corners have been glittered. All the paper was from the Stampin' Up Simply Scrappin'  'I Wish' collection. It's an easel card and this is what it looks like open Thanks for popping over to take a look - Jacqueline xx.

This is a card I have made to apply for a position on the Die Cut Dreams  Challenge blog Design Team. The rules are - make a card that is new and not blogged before, not combined with any other challenge and following the theme of Pink & Girly. O.K. so blowing my own trumpet now (not part of the challenge but hey - no one else will!!!!) I made a Recessed Window, Easel Drawer Card - take a look The Recipe for this card is : Basic white card stock Stampin' Up card stock - Rose Red, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink & Certain Celery Sentiment - S'U - Simply Said Various dies & embossing folders Cuttlebug Glitter & Brads The flowers are hand made although the greenery is from a paper punch. Thank you for taking the time to look - hope you enjoyed looking, see you soon - Jacqueline xx.

I'm starting to stock pile a small amount of Christmas cards now which is very good as I am usually still making mine on Christmas Eve! And I love making Christmas cards because you can be very over the top and add loads of glitter and bling! The one I made today has a moderate amount of glitter and bling and a gorgeous little digi stamp downloaded from Pink Gem  web site. Used some Christmassy backing papers and my Promarkers. This is for the Pink Gem challenge this month here . The challenge was to follow the sketch and the optional extra was to decorate the inside. Here is the sketch And here is my creation I made an easel card so I guess the decoration in side would be under the flap - like so - I then decided to mount the card on a drawer - a good place to put a christmas pressie or some choccies I think I would like to enter my card/box into the following challenges Pink Gem  - Sketch Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club  - A Very Beary Merry Xmas Bee Crafty - ...

Hello folks - here as promised is a project not using blue! This is an easel card with a difference - it has little drawers underneath it - take a look This is for this week's challenge over on Project Tuesday  and I have used Bazzill card stock and my favourite 2 step bird punch from Stampin' Up. I got the inspiration for this project from  Jennifer Meyer  who is on the PT design team and she provided the link for the tutorial - here . Here it is with drawers open The idea for the image on my card is sort - of CASEd from a blog I love - here . She did a You Tube video for her card so I'm hoping she won't mind that I tried it out. Doing this I found that I had a few bits and pieces of card stock left over - so I made this aswell - This was last week's Project Tuesday challenge that I never got around to. It was just too good an idea not to do! Will have to hide this though - I can see it ending up in my daughter's hand bag!!! See you soon - Jacqueline ...