Phoenix Inspirations

As we hurtle into the season of goodwill and Christmas festivities what better theme to have than Food and Drink? - which just happens to be the new theme over in  The Male Room  - here is my project I have chosen to step away from Christmas and instead show you the gift I made for my Brother's birthday. I have the lovely Traci Cornelius to thank for this project as I followed the tutorial on her blog  HERE  - please do pop over there and take a look. Materials - Stampin' Up Stamps: Nature Walk (retired) Ink: Various markers Card Stock: Naturals White (To order any of the above current items or items from the Annual Catalogue please e-mail me on deezinesart@gmail.com - a catalogue pdf can be found in the side bar. Items can be delivered direct to you - just £4.95 p+p any size order. Also see the special offers above in the top tabs - thanks). You can also shop now directly from my Stampin' Up website - click  HERE  to take a look. ...

That's right - join us in The Male Room  this week and share with us your male Sports and Hobbies - take a look at my card My card is all about Lepidoptera - that's collecting butterflies to you and me! A little while ago I was helping my Mum and Dad clear out their attic and Mum was horrified to find some boxes of dead mounted butterflies from my Dad's childhood especially that  he is a naturalist and conservationist now! Materials - Stampin' Up Stamps: French Foliage & Nature Walk - both retired and Papillon Potpourri and Best of Butterflies Ink: Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Early Espresso, Black Stazon, plus various markers Card Stock: Very Vanilla, Early Espresso Accessories: Dimensionals (To order any of the above current items or items from the Annual Catalogue please e-mail me on deezinesart@gmail.com - a catalogue pdf can be found in the side bar. Items can be delivered direct to you - just £4.95 p+p any size order. Also see the special o...

We are almost half way through this week's challenge at  Make My Monday  and this week the theme is 'Childhood Memories' My card on first appearance my not seem very childish but the images do bring back many fond memories for me. Both my Granddads were gardeners and both grew huge amounts of bedding plants which by this time of the year would be blooming madly. My favourites were always the marigolds and more specifically the french marigolds - take a look These stamps I believe are more likely to be scabious flowers however inked with the gold and red do look very much like the marigolds from my memories. I remember too my one Granddad in his greenhouse collecting the seeds from the dead flower heads and the smell was amazing! Materials - Stampin' Up Stamps: Field Flowers, Nature Walk (retired) Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Soft Sky, Crushed Curry, Cherry Cobbler, Chocolate Chip Card Stock: Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler Accessories: Dimensionals (To order an...

Morning all - time for another sketch challenge over on the  CAS Colours & Sketches Blog  - take a look Here is my card Materials - Stampin' Up Stamps: Nature Walk, Summer Silhouettes, Petite Pairs, Bloomin' Marvelous (Retired SAB set) Ink: Always Artichoke, Elegant Eggplant Card Stock: Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant Accessories: Dimensionals, Bitty Butterfly Punch (Please do drop me an e-mail if you would like to order any of the above items or indeed any Stampin' Up product from the two current catalogues found in my side bar - all my details are above in the top tabs - thanks) . Please pop over and say 'hi' to the other DT ladies - they have made some fabulous cards this week - bye for now - Jacqueline xx

It's time for another  Make My Monday  challenge and this week the theme is - Inspired by Nature: no cute images this week - naturalistic subjects only. Take a look at my card A good excuse then to get out one of my favourite stamp sets - Nature Walk. I also added some of the feathers from fine Feather, a set just made for matching with it. I used a masculine colour scheme with just white, black and blue and one of my other favourite things - squares. All materials are Stampin' Up Stamps: Nature Walk, Fine Feathers Ink: Basic Black, Baja Breeze Card Stock: Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Basic Black (All Stampin' Up items can be ordered through me and delivered direct to your door - please see all the details in the top tabs). Thanks for stopping by to take a look today - it's great to see you and I hope you like what you see. Please do take the time to pop over to the blog to check out the challenge and all the stunning work produced by the DT this week - bye...

It's time for another challenge at  Make My Monday  and this week Suzi has chosen the theme and it is to 'Add a Charm' Here is my card After rootling around in my stash drawer I found this little feather charm and decided to base my card around that. Nature Walk and Fine Feathers worked perfectly don't you think? I kept my colour palette limited to just three colours and attached my charm to a neutral coloured ribbon. Here is a close up Materials Stamps: Nature Walk, Fine feathers Ink: Early Espresso, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake Card Stock: Whisper White, Crumb Cake (All items listed are Stampin' Up - for details on how to place an order please see the top tabs). Hopefully you will be seeing this post at the correct time - we have been experiencing a few gremlins in our internet, it seems to have a mind of it's own and picks and chooses when it wants to work - very inconvenient! Please do pop on over and take a look at the ...

I didn't think I would be able to take part in this week's  Inkspirational Challenge  but I managed to grab a few minutes this morning to create a card. This week Mynnette wants us to CASE this card Here is my card I have used a mixture of Nature Walk and Fine Feathers - here is another view to show my embossing and another view to show my stamped panel Materials Stamps: Nature Walk, Fine Feathers Ink: Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip Card Stock: Whisper White, Crumb Cake Accessories: Dimensionals (All Stampin' Up products can be ordered through me and delivered direct to your door - please see the details in the top tab).  Thanks so much for stopping by to take a look - see you soon - Jacqueline xx

I have up-dated my Craft Club Blog with the tutorial for last week's workshop make. We made this card The tutorial can be found -  HERE Materials Stamps: Nature Walk, Fine Feathers Ink: Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip Card Stock: Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake Accessories: Dimensionals Other: Twine (All materials - Stampin' Up - please see the details in the top tab to place an order)

Sorry - this has to be a short post, I'm away and although I took my laptop with me I've left the power cable at home and I'm low on juice! Here is my card for this week's challenge over on the  Addicted to Stamps & More There is a tutorial coming up very soon for this card over on my Craft Club blog as this was the theme of our workshop this morning so please come back for that. Materials Stamps: Nature Walk, Fine Feathers Ink: Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip Card Stock:: Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake (All materials - Stampin' Up - please see the details in the top tab to place an order) Thanks for looking, see you soon - Jacqueline xx

I have a challenge card for you tonight for one of my favourite challenge blogs -  Simply Stampin'  and their theme this week is LETS HEAR IT FOR THE BOYS I have combined two sets for this masculine challenge - Nature Walk and Young Vermillion take a look I have used chocolate Chip card stock and ink along with some of the Twitterpated DSP. My images in the squares have a little Baja Breeze sponging too. Here's a couple of close ups Thanks for looking, 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

Morning all - thanks for stopping by, I have a recessed window card today for my dt piece over on  Make My Monday . The subject this week is BUTTERFLIES AND DRAGONFLIES - together or separately. Here is my card The base card is a piece of red SU card stock with Very Vanilla for stamping on. My main butterfly is a stamp quickly snaffled from Louise last week especially for this card and the rest is a Stampin' Up set - Nature Walk. The dragonfly is from Organic Grace. This is our final Nature challenge so why not pop over and take a look. Bye for now - Jacqueline xx

For the Mid-week Motivation piece at  Make My Monday  this week I made a card with a piece of hand made background paper - take a look I used one of my favourite SU sets - Nature Walk and the plaque shape from Everything Eleanor. Colours used are Memento - Rich Cocoa and Dessert Sand and SU Baja Breeze. The ribbon is also SU Gross Grain ribbon in Early Espresso. If you would like to see how I made my background paper please pop over to the  Make My Monday  blog as I have posted a tutorial there. I am also entering this card into   The House That Stamps Built  challenge - DCC14~Blue and Brown Card Challenge. See you soon - Jacqueline xx

Make My Monday  takes flight this New Year with a Bird challenge. Fliss of the DT has chosen the overall theme of NATURE for January so there will be some fab challenges coming our way. Here is my card I have used a mish mash of stamp sets to create this card starting with one of my favourites - Nature Walk. These stamps were used to make the bottom left panel, the eggs on the blue mat and the bees. The top right panel uses my new Young Vermillion stamp (from the Stampin' Up A La Carte range) and the leaf from Lovely as a Tree, the sentiment is from Just Believe. All the images were coloured using Promarkers, Stampin' Write Markers and coloured pencils. I really hope you can hop over and join us this week - bye for now - Jacqueline xx

I made this card a couple of days ago using a sketch from one of the daily challenges on the  Splitcoast Stampers  site. I used one of my favourite stamp sets and some retired DSP - Springtime Vintage. The DSP is matted onto some Kraft card stock which has had the edges sponged with Chocolate Chip ink. The flowers were stamped and then coloured with some Stampin' Write markers and the bird was stamped and cut out before being attached with 3D foam pads. He was coloured using pencil crayons. The green ribbon was some I unearthed from the depths of my ribbon bag - I think it's from an Anna Griffin set I bought some years ago. Now luckily when I extracted my ribbon from the bag it wasn't too crumpled but I have been told that crumpled ribbon can be made smooth and flat again by running it through hair straighteners!! (Don't have then too hot though as it will probably melt!). The little label is a Nestability shape with a sentiment from the set Just Believe. Thanks ...

This week for the challenge at  Make My Monday  I have let my hair down. The challenge is ANYTHING BUT A CARD and I had SUCH FUN  making this! I hope you like it - take a look I started off with a tiny canvas that I bought at The Works. I painted it with white acrylic paint and then added some Bushed Corduroy Distress Ink. My understanding of Steampunk is industry with a fantasy twist, so hence the title of my work - Hive of Industry. The bee hive is achieved by stamping through some sequin waste (a favourite technique of mine) and the bees are stamped using Stampin' Up - Nature Walk. Some cogs have been added and some Maya Road chipboard wings - distressed with Brushed Corduroy ink and some gold acrylic paint. A metal corner was added and a tiny cork stoppered  bottle labeled Bee Wing! The cogs were taken from from a very old broken clock and I just had to use the pendulum - just because I liked it! Please hop over and have a go - I  certainly don't...

I'm a day late posting this as I was away visiting Mum and Dad - Dad has had some more chemo treatment but is still doing OK at the moment. So this week at  Make My Monday  the challenge is THINGS WITH WINGS AND USE SOME ACETATE. The dt have made some gorgeous samples this week and can be viewed in full on the MMM blog and you can click on their names and visit the blogs to find out how they were all made. Here is my card The card opens up to reveal the bees buzzing around the flowers suspended on thin strips of acetate. I used a 5" x 5" cream card base, some Pear Pizzazz and Very Vanilla card stock, the In Colour Stampin' Write markers and Stampin' Up stamp set Nature Walk. Hope you can find the time to take part this week - bye for now - Jacqueline xx.

I thought that I would enter the  St. Luke's Charity Cards Challenge  again this month but I'm a bit worried because I don't have any seaside stamps and I decided to improvise instead. Here is my card I started off by sponging my sky with a scallop circle and Baja Breeze ink, the sun was also sponged in using Summer Sun. I tore some copy paper to make hill shapes and used them again to sponge in my sand dunes. The sea was done in exactly the same way only I used some paper that had been cut with a wavy blade. Finally some flowers from the Stampin' Up set Nature walk were stamped in the foreground and coloured using my set of 'In Colours' Stampin' Write Markers. Hope you like it - I'm off now to put my camera batteries on charge as they have just given up on me! Bye for now - Jacqueline xx

It's the first of the month and we have a new theme over on the Make My Monday  challenge blog and this month we are concentrating on all Things With Wings. I am so looking forward to these challenges and the first is Butterflies or Dragonflies. I chose Butterflies and here is my card I started off with a cream 5" x 5" card blank and added some Sage Shadow card stock. This was stamped with a script stamp and inked around the edges. I then took a piece of patterned paper and distressed the edges with my scissor blade and again inked them. I used a 'splat' (!) stamp to add some detail and there is also a postmark and number stamped on. The beautiful butterflies were added last to finish it off. Supplies Card stock:- Stampin' Up - Very Vanilla & Sage Shadow Paper:- My Mind's Eye Inks:- Stampin' Up - Creamy Caramel & Sage Shadow Stamps:- Stampin' Up - French Foliage & Nature Walk Butterflies:- K&Company Grand Adhesions - Tim Co...

This is ever such a rushed post - I'm working flat out getting every thing up together for the BIG festival that's happening in our village this weekend. I have to be on site tomorrow morning at 7.00am to set up!!! But any how here is the piccie of the card we made last night at my workshop The card has a little recessed window for the nest to fit in like so: And then when you open it up it looks like this: All the images are from the Stampin' Up set Nature Walk. That's it for today - please keep your fingers crossed for sunshine over the next couple of days - see you soon - Jacqueline xx.