Yet another sunflower + some pics

Good morning all, I hope you are still enjoying this beautiful weather. We have wall to wall sunshine here near Derby although it's very windy!

A non crafting friend asked me to make this for her to give to a mutual friend, I have yet to make my own for the same recipient. Do you get the idea I like this sunflower stamp?

I stamped straight onto J&P paper then just gave it a tiny orange border to separate it from the background.

Now, onto my trip to meet my cousin at Attenborough Nature Reserve on Thursday. What a lovely day it was and I was fortunate enough to get these three shots. The dragonfly was so well camouflaged that I nearly missed it!

This beautiful little fellow is a bird I had never previously seen and I was so delighted to get a shot of him. He is a whitethroat all the way from Africa. Fancy such a tiny bird beaing capable of flying all that way!

 Unfortunately he wouldn't turn towards me but never mind, I might see him again :o)

I think this is a field forget-me-not but maybe someone out there can confirm or correct me on that :o)

I hope you all have a great BH weekend while I am working!

Jackie xx

Two posts in a few minutes...

...it must be a record for me :o)

I love this Queen Anne's Lace stamp from PB and don't use it often enough!

I sponged the linen card with Tim Holtz distress inks and coloured the stamp with Marveys

SU sentiment, Nesties and Martha Stewart punches were used

and I sprayed the red card with Crafters Companion gold spray :o)

Jackie xx

New birdfeeding station

Good morning bloggers. Well it's gone from wilting in the heat to shivering here brrrrrrrrr!

I installed this new feeding station - not completed yet - and this cheeky wood pigeon found it in no time at all! I always thought it took a few days until the birds got used to them being there. That water in the bath was crystal clear a few minutes earlier!

I hope he/she leaves some food for the smaller birds :o)

Jackie xx

Cousin's 70th birthday card

Made this morning for my cousin who will be 70 next month. She like unfussy!

I stamped the Stampendous image onto free backing paper from the love Viv 

Thank you Viv

I cut the 70 on the Cricut, then highlighted it with Glossy Accents, which I also used on the flower centres. SU sentiment, inked edges and that's all there was to it.

For the inside, I created a textured paper in PSP, printed the vers in Word then stamped and used MS punch on the edges :o)

Jackie xx

One I made earlier and forgot to post

Good morning bloggers. I hope you are all having a lovely Easter break :o)

Unfortunately I had to work yesterday and the same again today and Monday but never mind, at least with working Bank Holiday Mondays I get to have a whole extra week off later just when I want it :o)

Yesterday you'd have thought we were closing for a hole week instead of just Sunday, peeps were buying enough for a month's siege, it was totally manic all day and with out current offer of 6p per litre off petrol if you spend £40 instore the queus at the petrol station were phenominal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, on to my card. I made it a couple of weeks or so ago. I love this PB stamp and of course I coloured it with copics. As usual, you can see I have used Nesties and Martha Stewart again :o)

Jackie xx

Card for a very special friend

Good afternoon bloggers, a bit late in the day for me but never mind! 

I made this for a friend just because I wanted to let her know how special she is.

I used this sunflower image and the flutterby from my new Stampendous clear stamps set, coloured with copics of course. SU stamp and punches for the sentiment and Martha Stewart punches for the rest.

For the inside, I used paper created from one of my own sunflower photographs and my friend Pat's fence. I lifted the verse inside from a card on Nathalia Castellon's blog many moons ago because I loved it, and I felt that this was the card to use it in. I know my friend has received the card so I am able to safely show it now :o)

Jackie xx

A few photographs taken yesterday.....

.....on a stroll with my daughter round Mapperley Reservoir, Shipley Park.

I had the big lens on my camera and hadn't got my tripod with me so the goldfinch is a tad blurred!

I suppose you could say this is going from the sublime to the ridiculous with the robin and goldfinch above and the huge feller below and his friends LOL.

And then I found these tiny speedwell flowers, aren't they just so beautiful :o)

Jackie xx

Another from my Wollaton photographs

Good morning all, the sun has decided to show it's face again but it it quite cold!

Here's another card from one of my Wollaton pics. Daffodils are the epitome of Spring for me and this bed looked so beautiful in the sun.

This is a first airing for this Nestie set although I've had it for some time and of course I have used Martha Stewart again.

All papers are from stash :o)

Jackie xx

First card from Wollaton photographs

Not too sure that I like it but heyho, maybe someone will.

 Methinks that I like the inside better than the outside!

As you can see, I have used nesties, Martha Stewart punch and very little else apart from my photograph of Fritillaria Crown Imperial. What a magnificent flower this is, standing very tall and regal :o)

Jackie xx

What a great day

 Good morning everyone, yet another sunny start to the day but much cooler which is perfect for me. I am not a heat lover!

7.20am Sunday saw me on the road to the start of a fantabulous day with friends in Macclesfield. We had it all, sun, warmth, bacon butties, great company, laughs, crafting and last but not least, some great retail therapy in Congleton. I ask you, what more could a girl want in life.

I only created two cards on the day and here they are. Nothing startling but I think they will pass muster :o)

I don't usually 'do' Easter but I quite enjoyed making them :o)

Jackie xx

A leisurely afternoon at Wollaton Hall and deer park

Good morning bloggers, more wall to wall sunshine this morning here near Derby :o)

On Thursday I went to Wollaton Park to meet up with a lovely Docrafts member Joy (joylovescrafts) and these are just a few of the 71 photographs I managed to take.

The weather was very kind to us as you can see and this was the only shot of the Hall that I managed to get without people in it.

This stag very obligingly lifted his head from feeding for a few seconds 

This ladybug decided to join us at the courtyard cafe. He settled on the tray so Joy had to turn it over for me to take some pics :o)

There was a beautiful bed of these Fritillaria-crown imperial and they looked so majestic swaying in the breeze.

Joy had to hold this one still so I could take a pic up inside it!

Why is it that whenever you want to take pics of deer, horses etc they have to bend their heads down feeding?

Anyway, it was a wonderful afternoon which I hope we will be repeating sometime soon :o)

Jackie xx

two from own photographs

Good morning bloggers, I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful day yesterday.

Today I am off to Wollaton Hall & Deer Park to meet up with a crafter from Docrafts. We have never met so I am looking forward to it very much :o)

Anyhow, on to my cards for today.

The first is from a photograph I took of a carnation at a friend's house many moons ago. I printed it out and cut to 5x5 for the background. For the centre I added flutterbies from other own photographs. The punched flowers and flutterbies were punched from the background photograph. Punches used are Martha Stewart, McGill and Woodware and this is my first use of the Marianne Doily die.

This one is a photograph of a cross between a Siberian Husky and wolf that I met with her owner when I was walking round the perimeter footpath of East Midlands Airport a couple of years ago. The owner very kindly gave me permission to take photographs of her and her dad. The paper was created by my good friend Pat fron the colours on the dog. Punches used for this one are Martha Stewart, SU and Marianne's doily die :O)

Jackie xx

A few more snowmen...

.....or, more correctly, 1one more snowman 4 cards :o)

Good morning bloggers. I have been to the dentist this morning to set the wheels in motion for a new set of choppers and my goodness, pricewise it's as painful as new glasses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you can see, again I have used one snowman stamp from the Woodware set FRCL047 and coloured with copics in various colours. As in a previous posting, I have made them all different colours and different shaped frames.

I have also stamped and coloured another one from this set and will be making more cards with them. I am really enjoying using stamps that haven't seen ink for 4 years or more :o)

Jackie xx

Three wedding cards

A friend asked me to make her a wedding card so I made three LOL. When she has chosen which she wants the others will go into the box :o)

They are all white and silver  but don't look so here!

All are FF stamps heat embossed with silver. Leaves and flowers are punched using McGill, Leone Em and Woodware punches. The flowers have a liquid pearl centre and all are very simple cards which I enjoyed making :o)

Jackie xx

Mini notecards

Good morning everyone, what lovely sunny day it's started off as, let's hope it stays that way :o)

These little notecards are just 4x3 and very handy for quick notes.

They are very simple and it only took me about 20 minutes to make all three! Just simply punch a flower out of the base card, sponge with ink, add a couple of tiny punched flowers for the centre and stick them onto the card, add a gem and a sentiment and Bob's yer uncle!

I cannot claim credit for this design, I had a Youtube link from a friend for the tutorial and here it is. No doubt your talented peeps out there can adapt it to any size you want it to be :o)

Jackie xx

PS. Methinks I spoke too soon about the sunny day, it's gone dull now :o(