A rare visitor to my garden.....

.....in fact it's the only time I've ever seen one so I had to look it up. It is a Comma flutterby and while they are not endangered, they are not often seen so I feel doubly priviledged to have got some photographs :o)

Isn't he/she just so beautiful? 

I am now on holiday and the weather is horrible, but I have never let it stop me enjoying myself before so why change the habits of a lifteime. Tomorrow I am off to Trentabank Reservoir in the Macclesfield Forest to see the heronry there and hopefully get some photographs :o)

Jackie xx

Just a quickie

I cannot believe how the time has flown since my last post!!!!! This has to be a quick post so I can try and leave a few comments before I go to work, but first I would like to welcome Mina to my list of followers. Hi Mina :o)

Meanwhile, here is one of the cards I made yesterday but I am not too certain of it but It is beginning to grow on me though a bit!

Sorry I have to fly now, unfortunately work is calling, but tomorrow night I break up for a whole week YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY :o)

Jackie xx

I like this one better

Good morning everyone, it's a little overcast and very windy here this morning but still very warm! I hope that you are all well.

I decided to have another go at a brayering/silhouette card and I am fairly pleased with this one. I bought this Lindsay Mason stamp set a few weeks ago and hadn't got around to using them until now.

Using a Big and Juicy inkpad, I brayered a strip of card and then used one end of it to stamp the fairy scene onto. The rest I stamped with SU stamps from a couple of sets and the magic is from the fairy set. I used a smidgin of glamour dust for the fairy dust. Basically it's a very simple card :o) 

Jackie xx
PS. My followers have returned to the fold.

It worked for a while + a card

Good morning Bloggers, it's a bit hazy here so far but it's warm. Well yesterday I was all fired up with excitement because I could finally see my followers at last. How long did it last? All of about 8 hours or so then they disappeared again :o( Still, I will carry on using firefox for blogging because it is much faster than IE.

Anyway, on to my card. Not the best I've done but it is my first silhouette card so I thought I would show it and hope that I improve as I go along :o)

 

I was at a friend's house on Friday night and she showed me how to do it. I might add that hers was far better than mine LOL. I used one of her stamps so don't know where it was from. I am going to have another try this afternoon so let's see what I can come up with :o)

Jackie xx

Two more from my photographs + success at last

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

Although I have success at last, I also have some frustration which I can't seem to sort out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Firstly, I have finally taken advice - thanks to Christine and others - and downloaded Firefox and it's fantastic, I can see my followers for the first time in weeks and everyone else's too Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyy. What's more, all of your blogs are loading much faster :o)  

The frustration is that I cannot see my cursor so I don't know when it's there, or not as the case may be! I also  couldn't type in above, or in between, my photographs once I had uploaded them so I have taken them off and will now try placing them under this.

 No, it won't let me add them again so I will have to try later Grrrrrrrrrrrr!

Oh would you believe it, my cursor has just appeared out of thin air so maybe I will be able to upload now too, please cross your fingers for me!

OMG it worked. These cxomputers really do have a mind of their own don't they!

The first card is 8x8 and I took the gerbera photograph, and the roses below,  at Barnsdale a couple of weeks ago. The pearlised card mat looks brown on here but it is actually black.

 

 I opened both pics in PSP and gave them a soft frame, that is the only manipulation, the actual photographs are as they came out of the camera.  

The second card is 6x6 and much simpler and I have used green pearlised card for the basecard. I cannot believe it's taken me about 15 minutes to do this post with all the faffing, but I am hoping that the frustrating bits are ironed out now :o) 

Jackie xx

A few anniversary cards

Good morning all, it's quite overcast here so far but uncomfortably warm!

I have 1 friend with an anniversay this month and 4 next month so decided to get them all done yesterday.

This first one is 8x8 and I have used one of my photographs taken last week at Barnsdale Gardens

For this one  I used my new Sizzix embossing folder and a digi image from Delicious Doodles, coloured with copics. The sentiment is from my new set of Woodware word stamps. Both this and the one below are 7x5.

I cheated with this one, I made it weeks ago but added the sentiment and glamour dust :o)

This 6x6 was my first make of the day. I am sorry I casn't remember where I got the digi image from so if any of you can help me out I can give it credit.

All base cards are folded and cut by me.

I can't put the 5th one on yet as the recipients may see it :o)

Jackie xx

A few photographs.....

.....that I took ar Barnsdale Gardens last Sunday

I think that by now you all know that I don't like hot weather, and "by the goodnight" it was hot, but there is plenty of shade and lots of seats to rest a while :o)

This cheeky chappie was helping himself to the leftover crumbs

If these cherries had been riper then I wouldn't have been able to account for my actions :o)

I loved this clematis rooguchi, so unusual

What about these poppies? They were so gorgeous and about 4" across

These rose looked so beautiful against the Mediterranean blue sky. I took well over 100 photographs but these few are my favourites :o)

Jackie xx

A few more commissioned notecards...

...this time using my photographs.

I took the bees on echinops photograph 3 years ago at Darley Park, Derby, the rest were taken last year at Twycross Zoo. No explanation needed for making them as you can see :o)

Jackie xx

More commissioned notecards

Good morning Bloggers. Yesterday my daughter and I went off to Barnsdale Gardens again and what a riot of colour they are at the moment. The temperature, at 30C by noon, was too much for both of us but we persevered and really enjoyed ourselves and had a great salad lunch. I will put photographs on later. Then we village hopped (in the air coditioned car) from Rutland into Nottinghamshire and went to the Gonalston Farm Shop. What a wonderful shop it is, I can recommend it if you are ever in that area :o)

Well I have deleted my cookies, as someone (sorry I can't remember who) suggested and so far so good. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way :o)

I still can't see my followers though, and I see from the numbers on my dashboard that I have another one joined, so welcome to my blog. I am sorry I do not know who you are but hopefully it will be resolved before too long :o)

Now, onto my notecards. This time my cousin wanted white cards with garden creatures on and some flowers that I had coloured :o)

The creatures were all cut on the Cricut using A Walk in my Garden cart and the flowers were stamped and coloured with copics :o)

Right, I am off now to do a bit more wilting in this heat, it's supposed to get to 33C today!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jackie xx

Thank you so much...

...for all your lovely messages, I do appreciate each and everyone. They have made me have a rethink so I will upload stuff from time to time and hope that one of these days I can return any comments that are left.

With this in mind, here is one I put together this morning

I had previously stamped the image with versamark onto brown card, then heat embossed with a glittery copper powder. When I bleached the petals I unfortunately dripped some outside the area so had to cut the daisies out. I cut the 5.5" and 5" mats out with Go Kreate dies, and did a bit of chalking round the edges :o)

Jackie xx