Granddaughter Sian

This is Granddaughter Sian 2 1/2 years ago when she was 16, posing in my sunhat. I have to say it looks much better on her :o)

She recently got her grades from college. She needed 3 As and got A* plus 2 As so York have accepted her although she is taking a gap year to earn some pennies to add to her Uni fund. She was home taught and never did GCSEs and we are so proud of her, she has worked very hard to become the first in my family to go to University. It is also a testament to my daughter's ability in teaching her whilst working for a degree herself.

She, my daughter, gained a 1st class honours in English Literature at the open university just as Sian was about to start at college :o)

Jackie xx

Ryan again

No time for any cards at the moment as I have to go to work earlier than normal today!

Here's Ryan again, this time a bit younger at 9 months old :o)

I don't get to see him quite so often nowadays because when his daddy - my grandson - has him I am usually at work, but he does visit my daughter on those occasions and she keeps me up to scratch on him :o)

In the meantime, I am decluttering both in my craftroom and around the house, and my neighbour is preparing the ground in the front garden _ pocket handkerchief really) - for turf laying in a few weeks so I won't have so much chance of making challenge cards for a while although I will be trying to make the odd one here and there :o)

Jackie xx

Descendant for a change

I hope you are all having a great BH weekend.

You've seen some of my ancestors so I thought "what about descendants" instead :o)

Meet Ryan, my greatgrandson, the light of my life :o)

The other two are my daughter and granddaughter, Ryan's Granny and aunt.

Photographs were taken at Elvaston Castle Country Park in 2007. I cannot believe that this cute little feller will be starting school next month!

Creatures and title were cut on the Cricut. Made my own backing papers :o)

Jackie xx

Karen's Doodles - polka dots

I decided on the CAS approach for this card and I am pleased at the way it turned out :o)

This is for the polka dots challenge over at Karen's Doodles

I wish I could remember where I bought this great canvassy/linen type base card cuz

I love it!

Image is from Karen and I've coloured it with copics and sakura stardust pens. Of course I had to bring Martha Stewart in too, I do love that grass edge punch. Ribbon and black card from stash. Overall a very simple card :o)

Jackie xx

Not a challenge in sight...

...at least not until the next post :o)

Well we had a fatastic day on Tuesday at Viv's. As usual there wasn't a lot done apart from laughing and chinwagging. We started off with the obligatory bacon butties and then off to the craft shop for retail therapy, also obligatory :o)

Then it was back to lovely crumpets dripping with butter, (in my case Flora) before getting down to the serious business of the day and this was the only complete card I managed but I did colour a couple of images in as well :o) This is another

Elizabeth O Dulemba image and they are great for kiddy cards.

These are the goodies I bought, haven't managed to play with them yet. Gotta get the U-mount stamps onto Kling thingy yet!
Gotta go to the docs today for a finger pricking session so better go get myself in the shower :o)
Jackie xx

Stamp Something - August digi day

Good morning all, what an absolutely fabulous day we had at the lovely Viv's yesterday but I'll tell you all about it in another post. If you haven't visited her blog then hop on over there and browse her wonderful creations :o)

This is my entry for the Stamp Something  August digi day challenge.

The gorgeous digi image is one of the five I chose for my win on FFF recently.

I coloured them sparingly with copics and everything else is white and silver. Base card is fantastic canvas/linen  look alike from who knows where. It might have been from Monk's Den in Ashby de la Zouch. Used Martha Stewart grass edge punch - which I think doubles excellently as icicles - for the band, Woodware and McGill punches for the snowflakes and a wordstamp I discovered recently while transferring all my unmounted stamps to CD cases. I also added a smidgin of Glamour Dust to finish off :o)

Jackie xx

Crafting day...

...I am going off for a fab day with my friends at Macclesfield so I will have to catch up on your blogs later. Have a great day everyone, I know I will :o)

Jackie xx

PK #35 colour combo and sketch + FFF week 33 punch it

1 card, two challenges

Peachy Keen Sketch and colour combo apricot/teal/orchid

FFF Punch it

Would you believe that I put it together upside down and had to cut the back off, cut and fold another card then stick the front of this one onto it Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Image is a digi freebie from Peachy Keen and I have stamped a PK face onto it. Coloured with copics of course, then mounted onto nestie cuts and lightly distressed with Tim Holtz. Ribbon is a scrap from stash :o)

Martha Stewart lattice and butterfly punches, all coloured card is Bazzill :o)

Another Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, I just loaded it onto the wrong blog!

Jackie xx

CFM #17 - decoupage

Good afternoon all. I hope you are all warm and dry as we are near Derby :o)

This is my entry for the CFM challenge - decoupage. As I am currently making cards for boys I decided that this fab train from Elizabeth O Dulemba would possibly make a good decoupage and I am quite pleased with the result.

As you can see, I decided on the octogon shape because I wanted another chance to use my newest nesties :o)

This is a close up to show the layers as they aren't apparent on the main image.

Base card is grey Bazzill, red and yellow card is from stash. Main image I printed 3 times and used 2 of them for cutting all the bits out of after colouring with copics. Greeting is  a Peachy Keen stamp which I bent round to fit in the smoke.

I did construct the decoupage using silicone glue, but it showed through the top layer spoiling it completely. I was nearly in tears but decided to stop snivelling and do it all again, this time building it up with foam pads. Thank goodness I hadn't built it up on the card itself or that would have been more rubbish!

Anyway, I am rambling so I'd better shut up before they come and take me away :o)

Jackie xx

FFF - photo inspiration + Stamp Something - fairy tale something

OMG, I not only managed 2 posts in one morning, I also managed to make one card for 2 challenges. That doesn't happen very often :o)

This is for FFF photograph inspiration

and Stamp Something Fairy Tale something

The FFF photograph shouted Autumn Colours at me so I printed out this photo (one of my faves) that I took in a churchyard about 3 Autumns ago. I matted it onto copper mirri card then onto brown card from stash. The digi image is one of those I chose as my prize from FFF last week, gorgeous aint she. I've coloured her with copics, then cut her out and added a smidgin of gold Glamour Dust.  I punched the leaves from the same card with a Woodware cut and emboss punch. Finished off with tiny pearls coloured with copics :o)

Educational cards?

Good morning Bloggers :o)

For many months no I have been receiving Tuesday Colouring pages from

Elizabeth O Dulemba but never did anything with them, until now that is.

It occurred to me that these images can be educational as well as interesting to children and they are free! I think that a child could have great fun learning the alphabet from this lovely leopard.

This second image is great for them to learn about farm animals. I have kept the cards very simple so they don't deflect from the educational aspect of the images :o)

Jackie xx

Cards from August freebies...

...as promised earlier. I finally managed to make them!

Good morning Bloggers, I hope you all had a good weekend :o)

I promised to make these and never seemed to get the time but at last here they are.

Both cards are very simple using just the papers and toppers with a little ribbon and the jewels on the mauve one being the only other adornment. Of course I had to get Martha Stewart involved too :o)

You have only 2 to 3 weeks left if you want to download these and all our freebies over the past year or so from J&P  Pat will be away on holiday the first week in September and the site will be closed when she comes back.

Jackie xx

Sorry folks...

... I have tried leaving comments this morning but blogger doesn't want to play so please don't think I am ignoring you. I hope that normal service will be resumed as soon

as possible!

Jackie xx

OMG I won!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe it, I actually won a challenge Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

I won over at FFF with my pink and green get well card.

I've chosen my prize and await it with anticipation :o)

Jackie xx

More heritage pages

Good morning all :o)

I don't have any cards this morning but I do have a  couple more heritage pages.

This is my paternal grandmother and her father

The photograph of my grandmother was thought to have been taken on her wedding day in 1913 and I love it :o)

I used Crate papers for the backgrounds, and the Father/Daughter was cut out from a Crate letter page :o)

Jackie xx

Winter Wonderland - easel with sparkle and shine

Good morning everyone, I hope you are well on this lovely sunny Wednesday :o)

This is my entry for the Winter Wonderland  easel with sparkle and shine.

I sprayed the base card lightly with silver cosmic shimmer mist which gives a bit of shine along with the McGill snowflakes which were punched from pearlised and silver paper.

The snowman is a freebie from Cuddly Buddly which I coloured with copics then mounted onto nestie cut scalloped squares then white cuttlebugged square, sentiment is unnamed and likewise mounted apart from the white square. The sparkle comes from the Glamour dust on the snowman :o) 

Stamp Something - photograph inspired

Good morning Bloggers. It is quite overcast here this morning but hopefully the cloud seems to be starting to break up a tad!

This is my entry for Stamp Something  photo inspiration and I chose to use pink and brown which are both in the photograph, and particular favourites of mine.

Base card and bands are Bazzill.

Image is from Karen's Doodles  coloured with copics. Do you get the feeling that I just love Karen's digi images? LOL.

Once again I have used my beloved Nesties and MS punches.

The ribbon and brads are from stash :o)

Jackie xx

FFF - circle framed image

Good morning Bloggers. I hope that you are all well and had a good weekend. I took myself and my cameras off to Mapperley Reservoir yesterday after lunch and spent a very pleasant couple of hours. I enjoyed it so much that I didn't realise how far I had strolled (I don't walk very well) and had a struggle to get back to the car but I made it in the end so all's well that ends well :o)

No, onto my entry for the FFF challenge this week which is Circle framed image. I found this freebie image in my downloads folder and I am sorry to say that I don't know where it's from! Does anyone know so that I can put a name to it?

Coloured with copics and sakura stardust pens then cut out with plain round nestie and matted onto inverted scalloped nestie. The Sissix swirl is mounted onto a band edged with my fave MS punch of the moment which is the grass edge. I've used an SU sentiment stamp and pearls are from stash :o)

Jackie xx

Update. The image is a freebie from Fred She Said  about a year back. Thank you for the information Linda  :o)

CFM #16 - Off on an adventure

Good morning all on this lovely sunny day so far. I hope you are all well and happy :o)

This is my very simple entry for CFMs challenge Off on an adventure.

I decided to have my little feller going adventuring in his dreams so here he is dreaming of winning the Olympics in his little Team GB sailing dinghy!

This super digi image is from Karen's Doodles and I've coloured it with copics then hand cut it out. Background and dinghy are my own photographs, the sky one being edge punched with MS grass punch.

I knotted a bit of garden twine to finish off :o)

Jackie xx

Peachy keen 34 - sketch

Good morning all. I hope you are well and happy :o)

The sky here is a very funny colour this morning, a kind of steely blue/grey. Looks like it may have a lot of weather to throw at us!

Anyway, on to my entry for the Peachy Keen challenge which is a sketch this week.

I'm not too happy with it but heyho, I showed it to my frienda at Derby Dabblers last night and they liked it :o)

White base card covered with HOTP Christmas paper from a couple or so years back, and a strip of paler blue DP from stash. The diagonal striped pearlised paper was also from stash as is the spotty blue ribbon. Been raiding my scraps!

Main image is from Karen's Doodles and coloured with copics then 'nestied' 

Sentiment from SU.

I hope you like it better than I do, although it is growing on me :o)

Jackie xx

August freebies and closing down sale

Good morning Bloggers :o)

Our August freebies are ready for you to download from J&P  I'm sorry I haven't yet had time to make sample cards with them but will be doing during the next few days.

I am feeling quite sad this morning because J&P has been a large part of my life for the last 3 years, but it is time to pull the plug. I am knocking on the door of 70 years old/young and need to slow down a tad, just a tad mind.

So, we are having a closing down sale and all 5 of our CDs are now £5 while stocks last, and our Christmas paper packs are half price. The website will close by the end of the month or sooner if stocks run out before then.

Jackie xx

KD #22 - anything goes

Good morning Bloggers. I hope you haven't got the rain we've had all night. Luckily I got home from band practice just before it started, then it forgot to stop until this morning although it does look as though there's lots more to come!

Anyway I digress. Here is my entry for Karen's Doodles  The theme is Anything goes. This fab image is from Karen and I've coloured him with copics then cut him out and mounted him on nestie cuts. DPs are from J&P and I've used Martha Stewarts grass edge punch. I found the unnamed football stamp when I was looking for something else and there is no name on the greeting stamp either :o)

Jackie xx

Commissioned 8x8 wedding card

My neighbour asked me to make a 'special' wedding card, I hope this is special enough for her :o)

She has seen the front and loves it but not seen the inside yet so it's fingers crossed. I have removed the 'stray' pearl on the left, it was one I lost :o)

As you can see there is lots of punching going on, plus Cricut and Nesties.

Punches used are;

Martha Stewart - PATP and butterflies

Xcut - large flowers

McGill - leaf

Woodware - leaves and small flowers

I am entering this for the Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight on Punches this week :o)

Jackie xx

Anniversary card

For my very good friend Viv and her OH Alan, whose anniversary is today :o)

I love these giraffes from Karen's Doodles and thought they would be perfect for anniversary cards. Coloured with copics, papers from stash. I found the sentiment stamp lurking in a box when I was looking for something else  :o)

Jackie xx