English country garden.....

.....no, not my own garden, I only have a pocket handkerchief front and back!

Good morning everyone, I hope you are all well and snowfree.

I took this photograph way back in 2006 in Bonsall, near Matlock Bath. It was next door to the village hall where we used to have a monthly open mike day where anyone who could play an instrument or sing was welcome to come and join us :o)

It's another very simple card but I am pleased with it.

I cut and folded linen card to 5x7. The photograph is backed with gold paper, the same used for the gorgeous corner from Memory Box and the flutterbies from my lost but now found SU Embosslits cut and emboss folder. 

The Memory Box die is one of three that I bought last week and I am delighted with them, I WILL be getting more :o)

Jackie xx

No cards, just a few pics

Good morning everyone, I hope you are all well.

No cards from me today, too busy painting in the kitchen!

On Sunday I popped out to St Chad's Water for a breath of fresh air and was lucky enough to see these wonderful Great tits, Blue tits and chaffinches feeding.

 I know they aren't everone's cup of tea but this wood pigeon looked so cuddly all huddled up against the icy wind!

I framed them all in PSE5 :o)

Jackie xx

Birthday card for a dear friend

Good morning everyone, I hope that you have escaped those gales and lashing rain although I fear that not many have, and the forecast is not good for the rest of the week! At least it's a good reason to lock ourselves in craft areas.

This is my first card for 2012 and is for a friend who I know doesn't come on the blogs.

For once, I haven't cut and folded my own card, this is from an 8x8 Papermania pack of Kraft cards. The corrugated and plain card card is from PDA.  Tools used are; Marianne dies, Go Kreate scalloped circle dies, SU stamp and punches, Martha Stewart flutterby punch. All punched and diecuts are pearlised card from stash. Paper inside card is from J&P Pictures. 

I hope you like because I am delighted with it :o)

Jackie xx

Another simple card

Good afternoon everyone. I'm a bit late today but I just had to get stuff done before turning the computer on! Then it was lunch time and I really enjoyed my stew and dumplings and I've got cheese and onion bread in the breadmaker so I will be having that for my tea :o)

 Anyway, on to my card,  for which I have used some of my new Marianne dies again, I love them.  

I used  nesties to frame the main image.  I roughly brayered plain white paper with Big and Juicy inkpad Spice, andthere is just a hint of SU stamps :o)

Jackie xx

Simple card

Good morning everyone. I hope you are all warm and well and not living in the areas that are set for gusts of up to 100 mph!

This is quite a simple card.  

I cut and folded white hammered card to 6x6 and covered with J&P paperwhich has been punched with Martha Stewart trellis punch.  The flower and grasses are from my brand new Marianne dies, and I used a tiny SU greeting stamp. 

That's it, so simple :o)

Jackie xx

A brilliant day anda at last, I made something.....

.....I feel as if I have been in a crafting wilderness this last two weeks, but I am hopefully back amonst friends now :o)

Sunday was a fantastic day when I hosted our crafting get together and we even had a friend and her hubby fly over from Spain to join us. We started the day with our usual bacon butties, then it was off to Byrkley Park for some ratail therapy where I managed to get some Marianne dies that I have been wanting. You will see some of them on my DLO below.  When we got back we had the soup that I had made the previous evening. It was an "allsorts" soup, I just threw anything I had to hand in it and even if I do say so myself it was good ;-)

A great afternoon of crafting, in which I made precisely nothing, was followed with Chicken casserole and veggies and the lovely Pam had made bread and butter pudding and brought it with her.

Did I hear someone snoring there? I had better get the piccies on then :o)

My apologies for the quality of the photographs, I used the wrong camera in low light because I hadn't got time to change the lens on the other one!

All of the photographs were played with in PSE5 and PSP11 and they are matted onto gold paper. The 12x12 backing paper is from stash.  For the title I used Calvin font in SCAL and cut it out on the Cricut. Marianne dies for the embellishments and the journalling was printed in Word, Harrinton font.

Have a wonderful day everyone :o)

Jackie xx

Good morning all.....

..... I can't believe it's a whole week since I last posted, I've had a very busy week with no crafting :o( It is more than a week since I made a card and I am feeling deprived!

At the moment I am preparing for a craft day at my house tomorrow, there will only be 6 of us this time because two can't make it, they will be sorely missed. On a lighter note, one of our group has flown in from Spain to be with us tomorrow. 

I will hopefully be able to catch up with commenting in the next couple of days or so.

Happy crafting everyone :o)

Jackie xx

Good morning all.....

..... Grab a cuppa and put your feet up because it's a long post ;o)

Here are a few photographs I took on Thursday when my daughter and I went off to Barnsdale Gardens.  Even at this time of the year there is plenty of colour :o)

There will be nothing else from me for a few days now although I will try and keep up with your posts. I have to get all my Christmas cards written and posted, and next weekend I am hosting a crafting get together so I have to prepare for that - I have to rearrange the furnitur e to get them all in. On top of that, I am in dispute with the taxman who tells me that I owe hime £704.65 so I am going through the last 4 1/2 years of payslips to see where he got that idea from! I think he just plucked that figure from the air. 

Aint life great when you are having fun!

Of course that blue sky didn't last very long!

From Barnsdale we went to Hambleton Bakery where we were greeted with the wonderful smells of old fashined breadmaking. Of course we bought bread and teacakes and foccaccio and..... then we went and parked up at Rutland water for our picnic. By now the sun had gone and the wind was not only blowing very strongly, it had gone very cold, so we sat in the car with our picnic and guess what, we had forgotten the teabags grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Never mind, we had pop :o) I hope I haven't bored you all to tears

Jackie xx

A few from my Castleton photographs

Good morning everyone on this very frosty start to the day!

At last, I have discovered a way to get true colours when taking pics of my cards in the bad winter light! I used my big camera - with the small lens - for these which is very good in poor light conditions and the colours are near perfect so you are seeing the cards as they really are :o)

All backings except the cow card are also own photographs, the first one being taken at Trent Lock on a beautful summer evening a couple of years ago, but the others taken at Castleton. 

As with the previous cards, I have played with the photographs in PSE5 and PSP 

Jackie xx

An apology and a few cards

Good morning everyone. I am so sorry I have not been visiting your blogs for a few days,  my mojo got lost while I had the frozen shoulder and I just couldn't get myself motivated at all! Anyway, I am back now and hopefully will catch up at least a little so here are a few cards I made with my recent swan photograph :o)

 Although the first one looks cream it is actually white base card, the light was so bad all day yesterday as the fog never really lifted!

I opened the photograph in Photoshop Elements 5 to create a png image then opened the original image and the png in Paint Shop Pro to create the toppers.

Punches and dies used are SU, Martha Stewart and Spellbinder, swirl cut on the Cricut from the SCAL shape library, Cuttlebug embossing folder used on the mat for the third card and SU stamp for the greeting on the top card :o)

Jackie xx

Thank you so much.....

.....for all of your kind wishes, my shoulder is so much better now, just a little twinge now and again as opposed to continuous pain.

I am off out today to lunch with an extended family/very distant cousin who is also a very dear friend, so no crafting for me today - sigh  :o)

Jackie xx

Not a poinsettia in sight !

Good morning everyone, I hope all is well with you :o)

I have not been able to make cards for a few days due to a frozen shoulder OUCH. If you have ever had one then you know how painful it is!

Anyhow, I finally managed to put a card together yesterday so here it is :o)

My apologies for the quality of the photograph but the light is not good for taking pics!

I cut the lattice on the Cricut using a Penny Duncan freebie svg.  McGill punched leaves and Woodware punched flowers, SU punch and sentiment. I sprayed the flowers with a smidgin of  CC gold spray. Flower centres is stickles :o)

Jackie xx

A different poinsettia

Yes, I finally managed to get the Marianne large poinsettia die set thanks to the lovely Doreen who pointed me in the direction of Cuddly Buddly. Thank you Doreen :o)

Not too sure if I need to add a swirl or something, not one for embellishments myself! 

I folded and cut linen card to 6x6 then added MME glittercard  squares punched with Woodware punch and a bit of Glamour Dust around the edges. 

Poinsettia cut from scraps :o)

Jackie xx

It's that poinsettia again.....

..... I love it because I can cut it to any size I want :o)

Good morning everyone. After that glorious sunny day on Sunday I cannot believe the difference now, so dark and gloomy and very wet!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyhow, onto my card which is very simple

I used Penny Duncan's svg poinsettia file again for this one and she very kindly gave permission for me to design a corner with it, thank you Penny

I used the flower centre from Marianne's poinsettia die set, and the sentiment is a Stampendous stamp. All the flowers were sprayed with CC glitterspray :o)

Jackie xx

A photograph or three

Good morning everyone, I hope you are all well or getting there.

No cards from me today but here are a few piccies from my trip to the Peak District on Sunday. Take note of the wonderful blue sky, because it's been dark and grey since then!

Oh how I would have loved to be up there with them, what a wonderful sense of freedom they must have when they are looking down on us mere mortals who like out feet firmly on the ground :o)

Jackie xx

Poinsettia trio + a wonderful day out

Good morning Bloggers, I cannot believe it is a whole week since I posted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been so busy this week that card making was not an option :o( I was out with my daughter all day yesterday and the weather was very kind indeed with sunshine all the way. We set off early for Castleton and the farmer's market there and then we had a lovely walk round, with a stop to watch fudge being made and of course we had to buy some,  before heading for the Vale of Edale via Winnat's Pass where we stopped for a little while watching about 40 paragliders doing their thing. What a colourful spectacle that was too.  We stopped in the Vale of Edale for our picnic then headed off to village hop our very roundabout way home.

Anyhow, onto my card, which is the only one I have made in more than a week! I am beginning to feel deprived now :o)

I cut and folded white card to 6x6 then added a layer of paper I found in my scrap box. The 4 panels are blue pearlised card, "cuttlebugged" then matted onto white pearlised card. The poinsettias were cut on the Cricut and the centre of the large one was punched with McGill punch, the tiny stars are what is left after I punched a border with a Dovecraft punch. Flowers were sprayed with Crafters Companion glitterspray :o)

Jackie xx

White and gold + updated Cricut snowflake card

Good morning Bloggers, I hope you are all well or getting there :o)

It looks very grey and windy out there this morning but at least it isn't raining.  It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday!

Any way, onto my card for today and an updated card.

 I decided something had to be done with the sparkly Cricut card (see yesterday's post) as it was lacking, so I added a blue panel behind the snowflake cutout edge and I do believe it lifts it considerably :o)

And now for today's card. While I was in CJs craft shop in Edgely, Stockport, a few weeks ago I spotted a gorgeous white and gold card using this Marianne cut and emboss folder and had to make one myself. My layout and flower are not the same as the one in the shop, it was the white and gold that I wanted to recreate and I am quite pleased with the result. The flower is from an SVG file by Penny Duncan and I cut it on the Cricut, the largest layer being 2.5 inches across. All card used is pearlised white and mirri and I must say that I do like the effect :o)

Jackie xx

Cricut card

Good afternoon everyone, I hope you are all well. The day here started off very wet but the we now have wall to wall sunshine :o)

I have been playing with the Cricut again and here is part of the result.

The card is from an SVG file  from the svgBlog. I haven't done anything with the inside yet. I cut the card on the Cricut using white glittercard,  and added the McGill and Woodware punched snowflakes and that's all there is to it :o)

Jackie xx

A very simple card.....

.....with freebie paper!

Good morning Bloggers, I hope you are all well or getting there.

This card was soooooooooooo simple to make because all I used was a free paper from the lovely

Jak Heath  and snowflake punches from McGill and Woodware, and an unkown origin sentiment stamp :o)

I will probably add a smidgin of Glamour dust later to lift it a bit

I am off to work this afternoon but I hope you all have a great weekend :o)

Jackie xx

More variations on a theme

Good morning Bloggers. I haven't opened the curtains yet so don't know what it's like out there! I hope all is well with everyone, and if not then I hope it soon will be.

For my cards today I have used a photograph of a teazel that I took in my daughter's garden a few years ago.

All very simple cards. All are cut with Nesties and Xcut Nesties and matted onto either mirri or pearlised card. Border on the last one punched with Martha Stewart punch, a couple of ribbon and cord scraps from stash and Bob's yer Uncle, job done. Oooooooooooooooooops! Nearly forgot the greetings. Merry Christmas is from a Woodware word set and season's greetings is from a Peachy Keen set, I think :o)

Jackie xx

Not too sure about this one.....

.....it's a bit loud for me!

Good morning everyone. It's been raining overnight but we have some pale blue sky so far this morning, fingers crossed it stays that way.

Right, onto my card which is a bit OTT for me LOL

I designed the doily in SCAL and cut it with the Cricut, then cut the middle out with a Nestie and replaced it with a Nestie cut sentiment from Papermania. Poinsettias are Marianne Designs diecuts and Nellie Snellen punched. Background is mirri card embossed with Cuttlebug folder. I can't remember what I cut the holly leaves with, I found them languishing in a box of bits :o)

Jackie xx

Just s few photographs.....

.....yes, I took my cameras for a walk at St Chad's Water again yesterday afternoon. It is such a peaceful and tranquil place to spend an hour or so.

Before I show them to you, I seem to have acquired 2 new followers but haven't a clue who they are as there are no avatars. Whoever you are I would like to say hello and welcome, and maybe you can let me know who you are :o)

These are just a few of the 54 pics I took, I hope that you like them  :o)

Jackie xx