Phoenix Inspirations

I have a challenge card for you today - for two challenges in fact, a colour themed challenge and a sketch - take a look Simply Stampin' and retro sketches I found the colour combo a little strange at first (sorry ladies) but actually I'm really pleased with the end result. Here it is I've used two stamp sets: Simply Said (Poppy Parade stamped flower) and Precious Butterflies (Concord Crush stamped sentiment) - also used my very useful Butterfly Punch and Scallop Edge Punch. I have taken a leaf out of my friend  Mynnette's  book and added loads of  crystal bling! Feeling a little blue today - Briony (my daughter) returned to uni today, she left the house in total uproar as she only finished her packing minutes before she left! We were going to go with her but a friend offered to go and help out with transporting all her stuff and the unpacking - she didn't want us after that!! Thanks for looking, see you soon - Jacqueline x...

Mynnette's challenge this month over on  Technique Tuesday  is Faux Pressed Flowers - she has a great tutorial there too. Take a look at my card and then I will tell you how I made it I punched my flowers using the Boho Blossoms punch and purple papers, they were layered and glued in place on to white card stock. This was then run through my Cuttlebug in the Swiss Dots EF - flat backed gems were added to the centres and it was attached to a pre-scored card. My main panel has been stamped using my Clarity Bicycle and coloured in using Wisteria Wonder marker pen. A sentiment was added from Simply Said and a trio of punched flowers were attached to the basket. Getting really fed up with the weather now - it feels so cold and damp I think I may even light a fire!! - See you soon - Jacqueline xx

It's arrived - the first ever challenge for  Addicted to Stamps  and the challenge is to: Make Your Mark That is you create your project using markers - Promarkers, Copics, Stampin' Write markers etc. I love my Promarkers and have used them a lot in the past but just at the moment my preference is my Stampin' Write markers. They are special in that they can colour directly on to your stamps. So instead of one stamp inked with one ink pad you can colour each individual element of one stamp in a different colour. Here is my very first dt piece for the challenge Can you see how each stripe on the balloons is coloured differently? I love that about these markers. To match the colours of my balloons I have also coloured the tiny flowers with markers and the sentiment label. My sky and hills were sponged with ink that had been scribbled onto an acrylic block - careful when doing this as the ink is more concentrated than when it comes off the ink pad, My stamps are: Up,...

A couple of days ago my lovely friend Bev came round to play bringing with her the now coveted Fresh Vintage set - sadly it's no longer available and I will long lament the fact that I failed to obtain it when it was available! Anyway I played with the stamps and have made a couple of cards - no sentiment on them as sometimes I need a sort of 'Just Because' kind of a card - take a look I used some of my Everyday Enchantment DSP with this card and used it to mount my squares. The flower image was inked with individual markers before stamping and it was cut out and attached using 3D foam pads. The border images were off cuts from a card I made previously - I just couldn't bring myself to throw them out and the tiny flowers were also cut out by hand. I then added loads of bling. This card was made using a technique demonstrated by the beautiful Mynnette  HERE  and again uses the Fresh Vintage set - this time just the flower image stamped in Poppy Parade ink. ...

I have a card for you today where I have used a technique called Velveteen Stamping - take a look To find out how to do this please hop on over to the  Technique Tuesday Blog  and Mynnette will show you. It's also my inspiration for this week's Mid-week Motivation over on the  Make My Monday  blog. Here is a close up of my stamping Sorry - the focus is a bit off on this pic but can you see - I've used the tree from Wondrous Gift underneath my stamped flowers - they are from the Simply Said set and are stamped in Concord Crush and Tangerine Tango ink. I'm hoping to settle down in front of the telly now and watch Lewis - bye for now - Jacqueline xx

It's Mid-week Motivation time at  Make My Monday   - comes round quick doesn't it?! This week our Spring challenge is to make a Mother's Day card or a Thank You card. Well the Mother's Day card is in the bag so I made a Thank You card. The lovely daffodil image is one I found floating around my scraps drawer - it's left over from a sheet of toppers printed from the Joanna Sheen RHS CD Rom as is the patterned background paper. I also used scraps for all my matting and layering - that's right folks - no whole sheet of card stock was harmed during the making of this card! The ribbon is from some gift packaging - one end was terribly frayed 'cos it got tangled up in the box and I sort of just pulled. Luckily there was enough to ruffle a strip and make a tiny bow. My sentiment is from Simply Said - one of my favourites and is die cut on to a nesting label. My Boho Blossoms punch is never far from my side and was used to make my flowers along with some pin...

It's Friday therefore it must be my weekly scramble to get my card uploaded to the  Simply Stampin'  challenge in time. This week it's a colour challenge These are quite masculine colours however I don't own any masculine Stampin' Up stamps, I had also nearly run out of Not Quite Navy card stock - only a few scraps left, so I had to really think about this one. As always I started out with a square card base this time in Very Vanilla. Strips of card stock were added and then some Boho Blossoms - take a look My sentiment is from Simply Said and I also added a few gems. I'm off to sit by the fire and drink a cup of tea - all that thinking made my head hurt!! See you soon - Jacqueline xx

Today's card is a Valentine's card - hearts are a pretty safe bet when it comes to Valentine's Day and you can't go wrong with the colour red either - here is my card I have used Very Vanilla as the base of my card with a layer of Cherry Cobbler, I then added smaller pieces of Very Vanilla, Basic Black and Cherry Cobbler. My stamped image is from the Simply Said SU set (now retired) and I added flat backed gems to the centres of the flowers. I have a small heart punch which I used to create my border. I would like to enter this card into the  Pals Paper Arts  challenge And also the sketch challenge over on  Freshly Made Sketches Now I know that this sketch is 'long' but I like to make square cards. I sell my cards and if they are square they are easier to package, store and price - so I followed the sketch and then mounted it on to a 5" x 5" card base. Ladies of the Freshly Made Sketches - please feel free to disqualify me if I...

Stampin' Royalty  have a fantastic sketch for us to follow this week - take a look So I thought I'd have a go at creating a card with it I started off (as I always do) with a 5" x 5" card blank. On to this was matted a layer of Baja Breeze card stock. My strips of decorative paper are from the Springtime Vintage pack of DSP. The edges have all been sponged with Early Espresso ink. My circles are stamped in Baja Breeze ink with a stamp from Just Believe, I then used a flower from Everything Eleanor to place over the top. A label was cut in Whisper White and a sentiment from Simply Said stamped on to it. I then added some more of the flowers to finish it off. Things are getting back to normal now after the Christmas break - I have been updating diaries and writing invoices all day with the promise of meetings and committee's to follow. I have my workshop taking place this Tuesday though which is always something to look forward to - details o...

This is my card for this week's challenge over at  Mojo Monday . It uses some remnants from the retired Stampin' Up DSP - Elegant Soiree and various Neutral shades of card stock with an added scrap of Baja Breeze. All the edges were sponged with Early Espresso ink and the flowers were punched with the Boho Blossoms punch. Some Liquid Pearls were added to the centres of the flowers and my sentiment is taken from the Simply Said stamp set. See you soon - Jacqueline xx

It's colour challenge time at  Simply Stampin'  and these are the colours we had to work with These are not colours that I would normally use together - however I think that they do work - take a look at my card  I decided on a gate fold style in the Perfect Plum and used the Whisper White as my base for stamping on. I used stamp set Simply Said, Pocket Silhouettes and the small flower from Flight of the Butterfly. The big butterfly is punched using the Butterfly punch and some smaller ones have also been punched out. Here are another couple of views of the card closed The gorgeous Melon Mambo ribbon has been attached to some punched tabs and then tied in a bow. More butterflies have been added to finish it off. Thanks for looking - Jacqueline xx

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...

Hello - where is all the time going this week - it seems to be rushing by at great speed. I'll tell you something - I haven't stopped still long this week so far either. I've been up to my eyes in workshops, stamp making and dt work - not that I don't love it  I'm having a whale of a time, just wish I had a little time to stop and catch my breath! I'm so grateful that I am so busy, there have been times in my life when I have been very low but discovering crafting and blogging and meeting all my crafty friends on line has been quite a life saver. Anyway I made loads of new stamps this week but didn't have chance to put them up on the web site as I sold most of them at a workshop I took on Tuesday night. As soon as I have made more - you will be the first to know. I have managed a bit of crafting for no reason other than to craft and came up with this This is a one layer card made by stamping and masking. I drew a feint frame in pencil and then started by...

Yesterday was Tuesday and my regular monthly crafting workshop. This time we tried out the One Sheet Wonder (minus the Mexican with the bad accent!). Stampin' Up stamp sets are perfect for this as their little boxes contain many coordinating stamps and sentiments. I made each participant a template I had designed and showed them how to stamp onto the back of the template so that when they turned it back over they could easily cut out each section. It may help to see what I mean from my photos. These stamps are from the Simply Said set. Yesterday I did the same thing but using the Greenhouse Garden set. This is the template I made Now for some reason it hasn't printed as I intended - it missed off a couple of sections on the bottom -but you get the idea. So, to summarise: take your template, stamp on the back cramming on as many images as possible, turn back over and cut out your sections. Now, you can make eight 5" x 5" card with this one sheet. Mount the se...

Saturday - time for Less is More  and this week the theme is Monochrome. Now I was very excited when I saw this and Mandi and Chrissie's sample cards are fabulous ........ I do love that Growing Green set!...... and then I popped over to Bev's blog to see what she had done and again it was brilliant - not so sure about mine though Now monochrome has always meant black and white to me but Mandi's cards had been done with pink and the other in blue so I too chose a pretty colour - Lavender Lace. Thing is it doesn't photo very well - my bird looks like he is lost in the mist! Don't get me wrong I love the way it has turned out but you will just have to take my word for it that it looks better in real life - honest! I have used a wide mixture of stamps for this - Stampin' Up - Bird on a Branch, Baby Blossoms, Simply Said and Flight of the Butterfly (they are mostly tiny stamps that I have used to stamp the frame) and in the top right corner I have used a weeny bir...

I've made another card in the hopes that I can encourage some of you to take part in my DT Call. The challenge blog is Make it Monday  and I have created a sketch for you to follow. The card I have made for you to see today has rotated the sketch to the right to give a different angle I have used my lovely new set Baby Blossoms and the co-ordinating Springtime Vintage DSP. The sentiment is from Simply Said and I have used Soft Suede and Always artichoke card stock. The vintage lace is some my lovely friend Cath sent me from Cyprus. Hope you can find time to join in - you have untill May 31st. see you soon - Jacqueline xx.

I've been having a little play (making up for lost time!) and I have managed to kill three birds with one stone! I had a trip around blog land and found three challenges that took my fancy and came up with this card I started with a 5" x 5" card base of Very Vanilla and added a square of Basic Black. I then took some Crumb Cake (mmmmmmm cake) on to which I added cut out flowers from the Simply Said stamp set. These were stamped in Basic Black and Cherry Cobbler. I did add some glitter to a couple of the flowers but the photo does not show this very well and then to finish it off I added a few ruby gems to some of the flower centres. I love how this card turned out and I am going to enter it into the following challenges: Clean and Simple  - Sketch Challenge Splitcoast Stampers  - Colour Challenge - Basic Black, Cherry Cobber & Crumb Cake. Less is More  - Thank You or Congratulations. That's all for today folks - see you soon - Jacqueline xx.

I was recently visiting one of my favourite blogs and I came across a really useful post - here . Linda had outlined her way of organising her stamps and storing them. She also asked for crafters to leave comments with their own tips for organising. I left my comment but I also thought that I would put my way here too on my blog. I am not a Stampin' Up demonstrator but I do workshops and my stamps of choice are usually Stampin' Up. I find that they are good quality and there are many in a set so there are plenty to go round at a workshop.  I also make up samples before a workshop and to illustrate the sets I have made a series of index files for all my sets and I have stored them in a stand - up flip file. Each set has been stamped onto copy paper and laminated so that it doesn't deteriorate and each set has a number which corresponds with the number of the actual set. When the set retires - the number turns red There are dividers to separate the main catalogue stamps...

I am in a bit of a bind at the moment - I am trying to work out what to do for my next workshop. I have a few ideas and so I am trying them out first to see how they work out. Idea number one looks like this Can you see the little tab at the side ? If you pull it - this is what happens A flap opens up and there is a little hidden message. It's a T-Slide card and I found the tutorial for it on Splitcoast Stampers. It's a little tricky but well worth the effort I think. Here is a close up of the sentiment  The stamp set I have used is Simply Said and I have used colours: Summer Sun, Cameo Coral, Not Quite Navy, Old Olive and Ruby Red. I'm away now to try out another idea that I have buzzing around my head - see you soon - Jacqueline xx. 

Only a week to go and it will be Chocolate - oops I mean Easter Day! Here is a project that I have been working on today It's a little birdhouse and Easter card. The bird house is made from half an A4 sheet of Baja Breeze card stock, some Always Artichoke put through the Scallop Edge punch and the roof was made using Crumb Cake. The little chick was made using Summer Sun card and he started off by being cut from the 2 Step Bird punch. The tiny flowers are from the Boho Blossoms punch. Pretty much the same was used for the matching card - I just added some stamping with the big stamp from Simply Said. So my title said 'Easter Challenges' and I am entering my birdhouse and card into the following challenges:- SIMPLY STAMPIN' CHALLENGE  - Easter & CRAFT YOUR DAYS AWAY  - Easter I have some exciting things to show during the week ahead in connection with my workshop on 3D Flowers - hope you can join me - bye for now - Jacqueline xx.