Phoenix Inspirations

I can't believe how well the first challenge has gone at  52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown  - I hit on the idea in late December, invited  Mynnette  to join me in the venture and we have 47 followers already! So, this week we have a sketch for you to follow - take a look Mynnette has charge of January and she has designed this fabulous sketch for us this week. Here are 2 cards that I have made  following this sketch Card no. 1 uses SU Real Red, Lucky Limeade and Very Vanilla card stock. The robin is punched using the 2 Step Bird punch and Liquid Pearls were used to add the mistletoe berries. Card no.2 uses blue card stock from my stash along with a piece of snowflake paper. Whisper White card stock forms the decorative piece running along the middle and I have added some silver foil snowflakes attached with brads. I really hope you find the time to pop over and take a look and perhaps even join in - bye for now - Jacqueline xx

The challenge this week at  Gingersnap Creations  is to use a set or line of stamps. One of my Christmas pressies was a sheet of Papermania Urban Stamps. The ones I have used today are the Botanical Print - take a look I wish I had taken a better picture as I made a Tent Card but you can just about see the decoration inside - camera batteries died on me just as had taken this pic! The base is a piece of Kraft card stock and I added some blue polka dot background paper, the tiny butterflies are from the Kraft cs too - I tried to add some liquid pearl drops but they all merged into one long blob! All stamping is done with a Memento ink pad in Rich Cocoa and it has been used to sponge the edges too.. After punching the aperture the piece removed was then placed inside. I am also entering this card into the 'Anything Goes' challenge at  The Kraft Journal  - 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

Next Tuesday (10th) is the start of my workshops for 2012 and we will be kicking off with a Perforated Bookmark Card. Intrigued?..... take a look The panel on the right hand side of the card is perforated and can be removed to use as a bookmark. A nice easy project I think to start the New Year! It uses a combination of stamp sets - Simply Soft, Precious Butterflies and Butterfly Prints all on top of a brayered background. As always a step by step tutorial will be available after the workshop and details will appear in my side bar should you wish to have a go at making this yourself. I have a little friend hiding behind my laptop as I type this post - would you like to see him? He's sulking because I have taken the Christmas decorations down and he can no longer play Tarzan on the tinsel!! See you soon - Jacqueline xx

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

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

Hello everyone - I hope everyone's celebrations over the weekend went well, I'm sorry to say that I did not wait up for midnight and went to bed at a bout 10.30. Am I the only one or did anyone else think that there wasn't anything worth watching on the TV? Got woken by the fireworks though and then again at 2.30am when my daughter rolled in!! OK so it's a New Year and what better way to celebrate than taking part in one of my favourite challenges  Simply Stampin' . They have a sketch for us to follow this week - take a look I found this to be quite a challenging sketch (which is the whole point I guess) but after a lot of thought and deliberation this is what I came up with My colours are from the new In Colour palette - Island Indigo and Lucky Limeade and some added Whisper White. I also used the Pennants Punch and the Boho Blossoms Punch. The stamped bird is from my Everything Eleanor set and the pennants were stamped with the Pennant Parade set. A fe...