Stephen is improving daily

Good morning everyone, I hope all is well in your world, or that it soon will be...hugs
When Stephen is further along the road to recovery then I may be able to start blogging again. For obvious reasons I haven't set foot in my craftroom this week!
I am so happy to report that already Stephen is eating without help. The food is all mushy but yesterday he was spooning it into his mouth like he was starving :o) He still can't talk but he unsderstands the written word so we are writing things down for him. His right side is still paralysed but he is using his left very well.
I can't visit him today but daughter Susan is taking in a tablet with photographs of his fishing team to try stimulating his brain.
I have bought him a portable DVD player and will be taking it in tomorrow along with his favourite trilogy, Lord of the Rings, so he can watch it for the 210th time :o) 
Love to you all
Jackie xx

Update on my son

Hi everyone, and thank you so much for your kind words regarding my son Stephen.
At 0nly 51 years old he has had a stroke. At this moment we don't know how badly it has affected him because he is still more asleep than awake. He is partially paralysed on his right side and seems to have lost his speech but until he comes round completely they don't really know whether that is just a temporary thing. They will be doing a second scan later today to see if it has moved or stabilised.
Once again, thank you for your concern, I appreciate it very much.
Jackie xx

Just a quickie this morning.....

.....as my son was rushed off to hospital yesterday afternoon and I suspect I will be having to fetch him home today. Got to ring this morning!

I only have a mini card, 4x4, to show you this morning. Not my best work but I love the flutterby LOL.

Card and flutterby were cut with the Cricut. I used the swirl from the SCAL image library.

Flutterby is a Panny Duncan svg. I cut the large one then lowered the size by 2 times for each successive one. I used MME card for them and for the inside. Added the pearls from stash and the stamp is from Stamps and Smiles :o)

Jackie xx

I've been playing again...

...this time it's Martha Stewart's turn :o)

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

Whilst looking for something else I came across my boxes of very neglected Martha Stewart punches. I have 14 single ones and I think 6 PATP sets so I thought it was about tome to use them :o)

Due to my penchant for CAS cards I can't make up my mind whether I like the result, but here it is anyway. Just in case anyone sees it as black and white, it is actually cream and brown :o)

All card used is from stash and is from the Paper Mill Shop before they all closed down. I used to love going up to the shop at McArthur Glen, Mansfield!

All punched with Martha Stewart apart from the Memory Box poppy, of course.

Inside I have used my photograph of the speckled wood flutterby I took a couple of weeks ago on the Nutbrook Trail, near Osbourne's Pond, Shipley Park. 

It is really a fair bit darker than it is here but I have lowered the opacity in a bid to make it look more ethereal (I hope). Sentiment is computer generated.

commissioned set of 4

Good morning everyone, I hope all is well in your world, and if not here's some hugs.

You will have seen some of the images in this set, but not all. My cousin asked me to make "some birthday cards please, you know what I like". She loves this type of card, no fuss or frills, one layer for posting, and my photographs so here they are :o)

All are printed onto my favourite Papermania textured card, sentiments added then folded and cut to 7x5.  I added the roses photograph, which everyone seems to love so much,  because I took the pic in my cousin's kitchen :o)

Jackie xx

8x8 CAS wedding card

Good morning everyone, I hope all is well in your world...hugs.

Not much happening here at the moment but it's nice to have an un-busy day for a change LOL. I am at work as usual this evening but  going to have a lazy day first doing what I want, how I want and if I want!

My card today is for friends but they don't blog so it's safe to show :o)

The base card is a cream (looks ivory here) 8x8 one from who knows where, had them a long time. 

I used an 8x8 Die'sire embossing folder.

Hearts cut with the Cricut and the cream one was then embossed with Cuttlebug embossing folder then attached to the gold heart. 

Mr and Mrs is a Papermania image stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with Stampendous detail gold powder, then cut with nestie and attached with foam pads to give a bit of dimension.  The topper was also attached with foam pads and yes, it is deliberately wonky LOL. The personalisation will be inside for privacy :o)

Jackie xx

Missed the deadline BooHoo

Good morning Bloggers, I hope all is well with you...hugs

For the first time ever I decided to enter some of my photographs in the Countryfile Calendar competition only to find I missed the boat. The closing date was last moth :o( Oh well, better luck next year. At least missing the deadline means I can show you what I might have enterd :o)

These were taken in my garden using my big camera, a Nikon D40 DSLR with large lens set on macro :o)

Jackie xx

Black and white. You've seen the photographs now here are the cards

Good morning everyone, I hope all is well in your world, and if it isn't then I hope it soon will be...hugs.

I couldn't make up my mind whether to make cards with these photographs but several of you made it up for me and here are the results :o)

Unfortunately, the first one looks a bit washed out in the pic but it is just as black as the second one. Both photographs are printed onto my favourite Papermania textured card then the first cut with guillotine and the second cut with Grand Nesties. Both are layered onto white linen card folded to A5. Foliage dies used are Marianne, Cheery Lynn and Sissix :o)

Jackie xx

Back to those roses

Good morning everyone, I hope all is well in your world and here's some hugs if you need or want them {{{{{hugs}}}}}

As always on a Thursday, I will be off out to lunch, this time with my very dear friend Jean who is a non crafter. We are going to The Hanging Gate at Shottle, hopefully we will get there this time LOL. Last time we set off to go there we took a wrong turn and ended up at a different pub but it was a lovely lunch anyway. Around tea time I will be going to my daughter's so my day is taken care of :o)

As my title suggests, it's back to those roses today. This is a card I made last month for lovely friends, but I forgot to upload it!

I cut the white linen card base with Grand Nesties. I printed my photograph onto Papermania textured card and added the computer generated sentiment. Image and mat were also cut with Grand Nesties. The pink card is also Papermania. 

I hope you like :o)

Jackie xx

Card for a market trader

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

Another simple card this morning for my cousin's youngest son who is a market trader. No, not the stock market, the kind of market where we all love to shop for bargains LOL.

I used an old postcard for this. I added the caption because the original was in white and very faint. The church in the background was Mount Tabor and it's where my cousins and I went to Sunday school in the 1940s. I cut the mat with Grand Nestie and layered onto ivory textured card from goodness knows where, I've had it that long! Sentiment is computer generated and cut with an Xcut label die :o)

Jackie xx

Commissioned card, photograph supplied

Good morning Bloggers, I hope all is well with you...hugs

I got home from work one day last week and there was an email requesting a card and could I please use the photograph supplied. What a gorgeous photograph, I am presuming the pup belongs to the recipient. Isn't he/she just gorgeous :o)

The customer wanted CAS, no frills, so here is what I came up with. She also supplied the words for inside but they are private so I can't show them! Thank goodness she was delighted with the card.

Without more ado, here is the card. 

I printed the photograph on my favourite Papermania textured card, which I replenished at Byrkley Park last Sunday, then cut it and the mat out with Grand Nesties. Mat is gold textured card. The age label is computer generated. I have about 20 7x7 envelopes which have been sat sitting there in the drawer forever, so I cut an 8x8 card down to that size :o)

Jackie xx

Just a quickie post this morning

Good morning everyone, I hope all is well with you. Sending hugs for those who need them {{{{{hugs}}}}}

I just had to share this beautiful bumble bee with you, he was huge. Took the photographs this week in my garden :o)

There were other bees too, but they were only half his size :o)

I will be back tomorrow with a card all being well.

Jackie xx

Made at our craft day last Sunday

Good morning Bloggers, I hope all is well in your world, and if not then I hope it soon will be...hugs

Despite all the retail therapy and going out to dinner, I managed to make 8 very simple cards on Sunday. I am only showing 6 because the other two were duplicates of a couple of these. So, without more ado here they are :o)

As you can see, one of them is white. This is Papermania textured card folded and cut to 5x7 then stamped with Memento London Fog. The rest are ivory linen card from the Papermill shop before they all closed, also folded and cut to 5x7. They are all stamped with Memento rich cocoa. The squiggly sentiment is Penny Black and the rest of the stamps are SU from three different sets. They each have just s smidgin' of Glamour dust which doesn't show up very well  on the pics!

They are so easy for making batches of the same card :o)

Jackie xx

Second post this morning!

Very rare I post two days running, let alone two in one morning and now I am doing both LOL.

I took these photographs in my garden last Thursday. Couldn't believe my eyes when I counted more than 50 peacock flutterbies on one buddliea bush at the same time, and just the one comma flutterby. There were also lots of the usual large white an even some small whitetoo, and my white buddliea wash covered in them too. It was a wonderful sight to behold :o)

Without more ado, here they are.

Surprisingly there were nearly as many the next day :o)

Jackie xx

Birthday parcels

Good morning everyone, I hope all is well in your world, and if not then here's some hugs {{{{{hugs}}}}}.

I promised I'd tell you about our crafting day on Sunday and WOW what a day it was. There were 7 of us and we started off with bacon and cheese paninis and a cuppa and lots of hugging and chinwagging. Then off we all went to Byrkley Park for some craft retail therapy. Back we all came after spending the obligatory fortune, and had wonderful home made quiche followed by home made scones with strawberries and clotted cream. We thought we'd died and gone to heaven LOL. We spent the afternoon crafting during which I made 8 very simple Christmas cards and then we piled into two cars and off we went into Derby to the new Cosmo's for dinner. OMG what a wonderful place that was, for the second time in one day we had died and gone to heaven. Methinks I put at least half a stone on that day LOL. Anyhow, before you all nod off I will share a card with you :o)

Very simple card. Embossed parcels are chalked then layered onto a scrap piece of mirri card, then layered onto the basecard which is plain what folded and cut to 7x5. Sentiment is SU stamp and the ribbon is from stash. Embossing folder is from Crafts Too :o)

Jackie xx

Trying my new cameras B&W function

Good morning Bloggers, it's a very soggy morning but temperature wise it's perfect for me at last! I hope all is well in your world, and if it's not I hope it soon will be...hugs.

A couple of weeks ago I went to Osborne Pond at Shipley Park and decided I wanted to try taking B&W photographs with my new little camera. Normally if I want B&W pics I take them in colour and then convert to greyscale in PSP, but this time I  took the same ones in colour and in B&W. I must say that I am chuffed with the results and the reflections are great, even if I do say so myself LOL. I think they are much more striking that the greyscale conversions!

We all had a wonderful day yesterday, but I will tell you about that next time :o)

Jackie xx

Last flower cards for at least a little while LOL

Good morning Bloggers, I hope you are all comfortable in this horrible weather. Yes I did say horrible, I am on my knees begging for some COOL weather!

Finally, 8 months after being made redundant, my son starts a new job on Monday morning. At 51 years old he has had great difficulty getting a job so I hope this one goes well for him, I have everything crossed that can be crossed!

I am sharing these cards today instead of tomorrow, because I will be at our get together all day Sunday Yippeeeeee. There will be 7 of us gathering at the lovely Pauline's house for bacon butties, then off to the new Hobbycraft in Derby to have a browse. Back to Pauline's for a light lunch then it's crafting all afternoon before we clear up and off we all go out for dinner before taking our weary but very happy selves off home, what a fabutastic day it is going to be :o)

Anyhow, onto my cards before you all nod off!

I took this photograph at Trent Lock recently, in fact this beautiful Canterbury Bell was in a pot next to the lilies on my little mini cards. The pots were all sitting in front of the Lock House Tearooms.

Of course I used my favourite Papermania textured card to print them onto, and the mat on the first card is from a scrap of Bazzill.

I hope you like them :o)

Jackie xx

One lily, two notecards

Good morning everyone, I hope all is well in your world...hugs

Oh dear, here was I just settling down to a more comfortable temperature and wham! It's going to be too hot again today. I know a lot of you will love it but it just wipes me out completely :o(

I've got an exciting morning ahead, going to get rid of some clutter at the tip LOL. The evening will be better though when I visit my daughter :o)

Anyhow, on to my cards for today. I hope I'm not boring you with my photographs!

This is a photograph that I took at Trent Lock a couple of weeks ago, the same day that I lost my little camera! This pot of beautiful lilies sits outside the Lock House Tea rooms.

 Photograph feathered in PSP as usual then printed onto Papermania textured card. I took the background colour for the second card from the lilies. This is something I always do when I want a coordinating background. For the sentiments I used Viner Hand and Dauphin fonts.

Once printed (both on the same A4 sheet) I folded and cut them to 4x4 :o)

Jackie xx