Happy 8th Birthday for a Girl.

Hi Guys',

Hope you're all well and had a lovely Easter. Thought I'd post a quick card in between washing and drying, yuk. Much rather be crafting.

This card is the other half to the twins' cards I did for a friend at work. The first male one was posted a few months ago, so I thought it was time to post this female one.

 

 

 

It's a pretty pastel coloured MCS picture window card, using an image from the 'Countryside Garden' cd. I really enjoy making these 3D cards and they're so effective. I've adapted the style for many occasions now.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I printed extra butterflies and decoupaged them inside the card, to add extra dimension and also resized them, to use as embellishments on the front of the card. I love the way you the windows open to reveal the image, by pulling on the side flaps.





 

  

 



 

 

The no8 was cut on my cricut, using pink coredinations card.

 

 



 

 

A verse and a place to write a greeting was added to the back of the card.

 

 







And of course, no card is complete without a pretty box to match. I was told the little girl loved it.


I am entering this card into the following challenges :-

Polkaddoodles Challenge Blog - Springtime.

Sister Act Card Challenge - Anything goes.

Chocolate, Coffee and Cards Challenge - Spring.

Card Makin Mamas - Earth friendly.

Crafty Girls' Challenges - Anything goes.

Thank you for visiting my blog, do come again.


Love,

xx

Happy Halloween with Elmhurst Hollow Haunted House and SVGcuts.

Good evening fellow bloggers,

First I'd like to say hi to PatK, my new follower. Welcome Pat.

Well, I've been playing (faffing) again. Nearly all the challenge blogs are doing 'Halloween' as the chosen theme, so I thought I'd do something a little different.

I've had this kit for a while but never got round to using it. It's called 'Elmhurst Hollow' and it's from SVGCuts.com. It's an SVG file to use with my cricut, along with the sure-cuts-a-lot software.

So here it is. Isn't it cool. This picture is taken with the flash, to show the detail.

This one is without, so that the lights show up through the windows. Bit more atmospheric, don't ya think? I used core'dinations card in black and grey for the main body of the haunted house, the chimney and rails. Five 12x12 sheets in all, so not expensive to make.

The backing papers for the roof and plank detail are from craftartist and printed onto 220gsm supersmooth card. The bats are made from two identical pieces with a piece of wire sandwiched in the middle, then glittered before being suspended from the roof. The cobweb on the front of the house was drawn on with a quickie glue pen, then dusted with glamour dust.

Behind all the windows and eyes is yellow vellum. Unfortunately the eyes don't show up very well in the photo, but in the dark they look great.

To the rear of the house are the openings to place the candles, not real ones of course. These candles came from a local discount shop and were £1-99 for four. Can't grumble at that, eh? They even blow out!!!!! 

Anyway, hope you like it, I LOVE it. Showed it to my sis and she wants one now.


I am entering this project into the following challenges :-

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Fright night,,,,  Boo!!!

Fab N Funky - Orange, black and choice.

Crafts 4 Eternity Recipe Challenge - Pumpkin spice.

Joanna Sheen Challenge Blog - Autumn breeze.

Forever Friends Fortnightly Challenge - Halloween/Autumn.

Fashionista Challenge - Anything goes.

Heck of a Challenge - Spooktackular.
Inky Impressions Challenge - Anything but a card.

Thanks for coming by, hope my house has inspired you to do a bit of spooky crafting.


Cheers,


Jools.   xxxx

Pretty in Purple with Butterfly Fairy.

Hellooooo,

Still soggy here in (not so sunny ) Spalding. I'm about 300yds away from one of the huge drainage channels built after the 1952 floods and so far it's doing its job. It's as big as a river, so I've got my fingers and toes crossed, if it bursts its banks we're doomed.  A few years ago we had a similar situation and the sluice gates were opened to lower the flood channels. Spalding was saved, but others weren't so lucky, a lot of villages in the Boston area were flooded. Still, we're still luckier than lots, some are already flooded. Think I should have bought a boat instead of a camper.

Anyway, enough doom and gloom, on with today's card. Yes, you guessed, number three thank you card. It's safe to post now because it's arrived at it's destination. The colours on this one are more vibrant than the other two. I love purple and lilac, so striking.

The card shape and all the mats have been made using the spellbinder grand labels eleven dies. That's the big plus about the grand dies, you can use them to make lovely shaped cards. The base is cut from white linen 240gsm card and the backing paper is  papermania, from the rich purple designer paper pack. The dies easily cut through both layers of the 240gsm card , you just have to pass it through a couple of times. I tried thicker card and it wasn't as successful.

My image is a digi from the clipartfairy butterfly fairies range. Is it my imagination or are fairies very in vogue at the moment? She's been coloured using promarkers and her wings have been glittered to add some sparkle. Some faux stitching has been added for detail, before being matted onto purple core-dinations card.   A daisy topper flower, floral flourishes and a Hunkidory sentiment complete the card.


I am entering this card into the following challenges :-

Digital Tuesday - Kids.

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything goes.

Oo La La creations challenge Blog - Mystical magic.

Thanks for stopping by, I really do appreciate your support. Hope you liked my blog and do come again.

Cheers,

Jools.  xxx

Thank You Fairy Much with Tilda.

Hi Guys',

Well, what a strange, humid day. It's lovely and warm but the rain keeps bucketing down. My kitchen floor is all sticky and damp. At least the rain stayed away for the Olympic torch when it visited our little town today. What a spectacle.
Today's card is number two of my thank you cards I have to make this week. It's a Thank you Fairy much ( notice the play on words?) with Tilda Fairy. I really do like these stamps, they can be used for just about any occasion.

I used a pale green and white colour scheme for this card. Tilda is coloured using promarkers and mounted onto white and green labels twenty-two mats. The backing paper is from clipartfairy and I made the flower with the spellbinder spiral blossom one, using the same backing paper. The floral flourishes are cut with the same green coredinations cardstock as the mat.

Some pretty white lace, a bit of card candy and a Hunkidory sentiment and the card is done.


I am entering this card into the following challenges :-

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything goes

Polka Doodles - Fairies and fantasies

Allsorts Challenge Blog - In bloom.

Joanna Sheen Challenge Blog - Summer daze.

Oo La La Creations Challenge Blog - Mystical magic.

Bunny Zoe's Challenge Blog - Girls, Girls, Girls.

Thanks for visiting and do come again.


Cheers,


Jools.   xxxx

Thank You Card with Saturated Canary's Whispy Fairy Digi.

Good afternoon fellow crafters and bloggers,

It's been a while, so I thought I'd better catch up. I don't know how I found the time to work before I retired, it's great. Talking of retiring, my  lovely friends took me out for a fab meal last Friday and presented me with the most wonderful gift. A Pandora bracelet and charms. It made me realise what a lovely bunch of people I used to work with, so to say thank you I decided to make some special cards, starting with todays.

It's a saturated canary digi  stamp called 'Whispy'. Isn't she lovely. Krista is a very talented young lady, go take a look.   I coloured her with  promarkers and added some glamour dust to her wings to make them sparkle. She was then mounted with foam onto a spellbinder grand big oval scallop, which has been layered onto a faux mat using coredinations cardstock. I'm pleased with the colour match, it matches Whispy's dress perfectly.

The spellbinder floral flourishes and the daisy flower topper were made with the same cardstock and the backing papers and border are from my tatty ted cd. Add a HUGE bow and a Hunkidory sentiment and there you have it. It reminds me of a strawberry and vanilla sundae, or am I just a bit strange.


I'm entering this card into the following challenges :-

Panpastells UK Challenge - Use a digi.

Papertake Weekly Challenge Blog - Anything goes.

Fab N Funky Challenge - Cute n girly.

I Love Promarkers - Anything goes.

Polka Doodles - Fairies and fantasies.

Allsorts Challenge Blog - In bloom.

Joanna Sheen Challenge Blog - Summer daze.

Oo La La Creations -  Mystical magic.
Bunny Zoe's Challenge Blog - Girls, girls, girls.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you liked my blog and do come again.

 Have a good 'un,

Jools.  xxxx

Tilda say's 'just for you' so charmingly in orange.

Hi buddies and bloggers,

Is it afternoon already? Amazing how time flies when you're having fun. Getting a few girly cards in before I have to do BOY ones again. ( 2 more, ahhh ) Today's card is similar to a rocker but isn't!!  It's one of my new spellbinder shapes that I bought last week and haven't got round to playing with yet. I got to use one of my multiple coloured Tilda's from a few weeks ago too.

The die is Grand Labels Eleven. I used the largest size to make a landsacape card with a piece of white A3 card. None of my card blanks were big enough, even the 8x8 ones. The rest of the dies I used in portrait. The backing paper is from the Craftartist spring in your step digikit. There are some beautiful papers in the digikits and the thing I love about Craftartist is that you can choose which colours you want, without having to troll through every single backing paper. I printed this mat on supersmooth 220gsm, because it's at the back and needs to support the rest of the layers. The smallest mat is textured white card, distressed with Tim Holtz shabby shutters and then matted onto core'dinations just peachy.

I made the flowers with the spellbinder daisy topper die using both the backing paper and just peachy card. The centres are material covered button brads from my stash. The floral flourishes were made in the same cards and two pearl hat pins were placed in between the layers, to hide the sharp points. Tilda was coloured with promarkers.

To add the finishing touch,  I used some peach ribbon with a faux bow and threaded an orange craftime charm onto some jump rings, which I put through the knot.

I haven't made a support bar with this card, I'm not sure if it needs one. It seems more stable than the rocker cards, but the jury is still out on that one. I was left a comment on one of my posts about my liberal glittering and it made me smile. Yes, I own up, I am a liberal glitterer, all over the card, me, my craft table, the floor, the whole house.........

I am entering this card into the following challenges :-

Ladybugs Craft Ink TLT Challenge - Anything but square.

I Love Promarkers Challenge Blog - Hat pins and charms.

The ABC Challenge - O for orange.

Joanna Sheens Challenge Blog - Flower power.

Fab 'N' Funky - Buttons and bows.

Thanks for dropping by and do come again soon.

Bye......

Jools. xxxxx

Peony Cottage

Hi Guy's,

I wanted to do something a bit different from greetings cards, they say a change is as good as a rest, don't they? I started having a look around the web for some ideas, when I spotted this project on SVGCuts. It's a little gift box in the shape of a cottage, and I loved it, so I downloaded the file and decided to have a go.

The first box I attempted, my prototype if you like, was very similar to the one demonstrated on SVG's website. I made a couple of mistakes, not serious ones, but I know they're there. Can you spot them before I spill the beans?

I put the window frames too high, they should be flush with the step. This means the roof, or box  lid, doesn't go down far enough.  There's a little gap under the gable end. I didn't realise until much later, and by then the quick drying glue was a bit hard!!!  You can't really see it from this view, but I know it's there. Here's a view of the box open. 

I didn't realise the second mistake, until I went to watch the tutorial again. The re-inforcing bar ( the lilac strip on top of the roof which covers up half of the roof tiles!!! )  should be on the INSIDE. When I put it on I thought it looked out of place, but again, the glue dried very quickly, so it had to stay where it was.

 

I think the possibilities for different themes is endless for this little cottage, as you can see from my second attempt, my 'Gingerbread Cottage'.

To be able to make this cottage, you will need software which enables you to import and use SVG files with your Cricut. There are a couple on the market, the one I use is Sure Cuts A Lot 2.

I think the hardest part of the whole process was deciding which bits to cut out in which patterns, etc. All the plain trims, roof tiles and gable end, were cut using plain Papermania 12 x 12, 240gsm card. I'm going to try my next one with Core'dinations. Can you imagine a little seaside cottage using the whitewash card, the edges would look lovely sanded and distressed. Anyway, I digress, there are lot's on the market.

The patterned parts were printed on supersmooth paper using various CD's. The lilac one was mostly printed from the Docrafts Tatty Ted, Me to You cd. That's my fave cd at the moment, LOVE IT!.

The patterns for the gingerbread house come from two different sources. Clipart fairy for the background papers, I love her style, and finally, MCS Crystal Sparkles for the gingerbread men. I distressed the edges using Tim Holtz distressing inks in various colours. The card looked too stark and bright without distressing. Fiddly but enjoyable.

That's about it, hope you like them.

Jools

xx