Phoenix Inspirations

This is a little reminder of the challenge over at the  Rainbow Card Challenge It would be fab to see you over there. All you have to do is create a card using the colour BLUE. Here is a bit of inspiration for you This is a card I created a while ago with some stamps made using my own designs. I love silhouettes and using the blue this card has a midnight in winter feel about it. Frosty seed heads and a full Midwinter moon! The background is made by punching a circle from a post it note and placing on the card base. Dark blue ink is then brayered over the whole card leaving the middle around the moon paler than the outsides. The edges of the card are sponged with the same ink but you could also use black to go darker still. The seed heads were then added in blue and black ink. The teasels were stamped twice before re- inking to give a feel of perspective. Finally the spindly seed heads were stamped and embossed with white embossing powder. Tha...

If you pop up to my tabs bar you will find a link to my  *STAMP SALE*  if you like the look of any, click on the 'Buy Now' Pay pal button and I will get one in the post to you. Postage is FREE and these stamps will only be available for a limited period - keep checking though 'cos I might be adding some more over the weekend! Jacqueline xx

Hello all - we are now no longer an island - the floods have disappeared and we can now see land around us! Actually it wasn't that bad and we were only marooned for a day! As you know I had to close my web shop recently due to some technical problems and I have had some digis for sale in my side bar for a while, and now - for a limited time only I have made my two most popular clear stamps into digis Poppies Teasels Here is what you can do with them More ideas can be found by clicking 'My Stamp Designs' and 'Deezines Digiz' in my labels list. All my digis cost less than a pound but don't forget they are only there for a limited time - bye for now - Jacqueline xx

Time that is to enter the  Addicted to Stamps  monthly scrapbook challenge - here is a little something help you on your way The theme this month is 'Flowers' so I chose one of my favourites - Poppies. The stamped image at the bottom of the page is one of my own designs and is coloured with Stampin' Up markers in Poppy Parade  The punched flowers at the top are made using a couple of S'U punches and have a little doodled edge to them using a fine liner pen. the photograph is of my son and his beautiful girlfriend on the night of her prom - don't they look gorgeous? Thanks for looking and I really hope you can join in - Jacqueline xx

This week at  Less is More  the theme is Silhouettes and as my Christmas Tree stamps were already out from yesterday I decided to use them for this card - take a look I masked off a square in the centre of the card with post it notes and made a moon from the post it notes too. After the landscape was sponged with black ink the trees were added - I stamped them twice before re-inking to create a feeling of distance. The snowflakes were stamped randomly at the two corners and clear gems were added to the middles. The finishing touch was using a black fine liner to frame the picture. Speaking of silhouettes - this is a picture I took earlier of my cat on my son's shoulder. It's not what I wanted but it makes a great silhouette!! Jacqueline xx

When I first got this Clarity Stamp this is the card that I wanted to make, it's also the reason I designed the tree stamp that is also used on the card This is a one layer card - it's all created using masks and post it notes and is inspired by the cards created by Barbara Gray on Create and Craft. The sentiment was first stamped and embossed, it was then stamped onto a piece of copy paper and the centre of the O was removed. This is then placed over the sentiment on the card and the scene stamped through it. Post it notes were then used to cover the whole sentiment and the scene was continued around the edges. The landscape was created by ripping scrap copy paper and sponging. The trees were stamped twice before re-inking to give a feeling of depth and perspective. The white space around the sentiment was outlined with a black fine liner to make it stand out. Our cat Louis has found a new place to sleep ...... in the coal scuttle!! I managed to take a couple of pics o...

This week Mandi and Chrissie have challenged us to use the colours Red and Orange over on  Less is More . So this morning - trying to ignore the gloomy weather outside I made a card using my faithful Poppy stamp. I coloured the flowers in using Poppy Parade and Peach Parfait Stampin' Write markers and then did some sponging with a little Tangerine Tango. The sentiment is from the retired set Bird on a Branch. I had a friend helping me this morning - Louis my cat decided to join me but spent most of his time on the window sill watching the birds on the bird table. He also got very excited when he spied a squirrel running down the path You can't see it in this picture but he was muttering very angrily at that squirrel! - bye for now - Jacqueline xx

Everyone knows that November is the month of Remembrance and that we commemorate this time with our poppies. At deezinesart this month everyone who orders my Poppy  stamp will receive instructions to make three projects *FREE OF CHARGE* . I will also personally donate 50p from every Poppy stamp sold to our local British Legion charity. Here are some pictures of the projects you can make To place your order while stocks last please click  here  - Jacqueline xx

For the Mid-week Motivation spot on  make My Monday  I created an Autumnal Scene. This time I left my brayer alone and used sponges - take a look All the details on how this card was made are over on the blog. The challenge over on the  St. Luke's Charity Challenge Blog  this month is 'Lets Hear it for the Boys' so this card is going to them  - hope they like it! I have a million and one things to do today after spending a lovely weekend away - so I'm off to get started. Bye for now - Jacqueline xx

Make My Monday  this week is going all Autumnal with resist techniques. So for the Mid-week Motivation spot this week there is another technique that you may be unfamiliar with. It uses Vaseline and a brayer and if you are intrigued and want to find out more - please do pop over and take a look. Meanwhile after the technique has been executed - this is something that you can make with the finished card stock The stamp is one of my own designs - Fancy Leaf Branch  and the inks are various yellows, oranges and reds. The dark red is Stampin' Up Cherry Cobbler and it just so happened that I had some gros grain ribbon in exactly that shade in my ribbon box. The background card stock is also Cherry Cobbler. A heart shaped paper clip is attached to the sentiment. Thanks for stopping by today - I love reading your comments and I'm really grateful for any that I get - Jacqueline xx

Less is More  this week are hoping to get 1000 submissions - good luck ladies this is a fab challenge site and I hope you make it. It should be easy this week too as it's 'Anything Goes' - as long as it's clean and simple of course. Now I am working on the next promotion for my web site (more on that story later) and as all the materials were out on my work surface I decided to use them for this challenge. It's a one layer card using my Poppies stamp coloured in with Promarkers - take a look Short and sweet today as Sundays are always busy days for me - might have another go at this challenge though later in the week - bye for now - Jacqueline xx

It's the first of the month and a brand new theme on the  ATC - Stamp and Swap Blog . This month's theme is Silhouettes and here are some of mine Each one has been created using a piece of white card and a post-it-note circle to make a sun or a moon. Ink has then been sponged over to create a background. I then took some solid silhouette stamps and stamped them in black ink - or in the case of the green one - green. The green ATC has been sponged with Handsome Hunter ink and a stamp from the Stampin' Up set Pocket Silhouettes was stamped using the same ink. A piece of copy paper was ripped, placed on the upper part of the ATC and a darker layer of ink was added to make a hill. The blue ATC was sponged with Brocade Blue ink and the moon was sponged with Daffodil Delight. The stamps used are my own designs and the trees were stamped twice before re-inking to give depth to the scene. The final ATC was sponged with Pumpkin Pie ink and Chocolate Chip. The stamped image is o...

My freebie Dandelion digi has been in my side bar for just over a week now and it's been great to know that people have liked it and requested to download it. I also thought that I should have a go at using it my self! I had a fresh order of Stampin' Up card stock and ink a while a go and I have been dying to use the two blues - Tempting Turquoise and Pacific Point and I thought that this would be the ideal opportunity to do so. So I downloaded the digi - twice and cut them to size. I sponged them with the blue inks and layered them onto some Tempting Turquoise card stock.   I added a silver clip to the larger of the pictures and tied on a piece of organza ribbon. This was originally white but I ran it over my ink pad before heating it with my heat gun - this not only dried the ink but also melted the ribbon slightly giving it a crinkled look. I added a sympathy sentiment - thankfully I don't need such a card at the moment but I thought it looked a peaceful sort of card...

Sometimes when trying out a new technique I will practice first - just to make sure I know what I am doing and last week I did just that. I practised the sky - sponging round the edges of a scallop circle, I used my new tree stamps - these worked really well and all was going swimmingly. Then I stamped my birds on a branch stamp and it all went a bit wrong. I had over inked my stamp and transferred that to my paper. I threw it away in disgust and started again. The thing is I couldn't throw it away so I started to play (after all I had nothing to lose) - I added a touch of Rock Candy Distress Stickles to the birds, coloured over my mistakes with a green marker pen and low and behold my mistake had turned into a masterpiece - well I think so anyway!! - take a look The bird in the bottom right hand corner is punched from the Stampin' Up 2 Step bird Punch and I added a little green gem for his eye. I am now on a mission - my husband usually works from home ............... in th...

EDIT - THIS FREE OFFER IS NOW CLOSED. PLEASE REFER TO WEB SITE FOR CURRENT OFFERS. Deezinesart is offering every reader of this blog the chance to download a digi stamp for FREE (see below how to apply). The new design is available for a limited time only and it will then become a priced item. Here is a preview of the new design This is a watermarked version, of course when you receive yours it will not contain this. To receive this exclusive FREE download visit the website and fill in the comment form on the Contact Me page, click Contact Me -   here  - your download will then be e-mailed to you within 24 hours. - Jacqueline xx

Good afternoon, hope everyone is having a great weekend. One layer cards are something that I have recently got into. I used to pile up my cards with papers, ribbons and embellishments - I still do sometimes but clean and simple cards are starting to appeal to me more and more. I especially like brayering but this week at  Less is More  Mandi and Chrissie want a one layer card using ink (can be ink pads) in a way you normally wouldn't. So instead of my brayer I got out some sponges and sponged a sky using a scallop circle (seen this alot but have never tried it myself) This is a great technique for creating clouds and I will be entering this card in to  Stampin' B's  challenge which this week is create a card with clouds on it. I used Stampin' Up ink in Baja Breeze and a Memento ink pad in Tuxedo Black. The stamps are my own designs but I had a little calamity with the birds as around the thin branches I had over inked my stamp and I had a black shadow around them...

I have been playing again with the resist technique. This time I chose some brighter colours and used clear embossing powder and not white. Pink glitter has been added to the tops of the seed heads to make them look more floral and pastel inks have been sponged around the images. Here is a close up of the butterfly That's it for today - please pop back tomorrow and I will tell you all about my monthly workshop - Jacqueline xx.

Good afternoon - hope everyone is having a great weekend. I did some cards earlier in the week using some of my own designed stamps. I have been playing with them again today but instead of using the brayer I have been using embossing powders. This card was first stamped in Versamark ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder. I then used the direct to paper technique and covered the card stock with Desert Sand Memento ink - I also used some Rich Cocoa too. I then ironed over the piece with a hot iron  - I covered it first with a piece of copy paper. (hee hee - I do more 'ironing' in my craft room than any where else!) More images were stamped on to the card stock this time just using inks. The bees are more of my K&Co Grand Adhesions and blend in quite nicely with this colour scheme don't you think? I am now happily playing with my embossing powders and pastel inks. Don't forget that a link to my web site and all my stamps is up in the top tab bar - see ...

I designed some new stamps last week and took them along to a workshop I was taking and completely sold out! I have now made some more so I am able to upload the designs to my web site (see top tab bar). The most popular stamps at the moment are tending to be the silhouettes and here are some cards I made with some of them I have never used a Big and Juicy ink pad before so I borrowed one from a friend to make this card - I think it is the Spice. I used my brayer and was amazed at how quick the colours went on. I used a post it note circle for the sun and only needed to re-ink my brayer once to achieve the above result. I then used the same ink pad to stamp the seed heads and plantain stems. The next card took a lot longer to create Again I used a post it note for the moon and used 3 different ink pads. This took alot of time re-inking my brayer and applying it to the card stock - great fun though. The teasels are stamped first using a dark blue ink and are stamped twice before re...

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.