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