New toy and first card with it

Good afternoon everyone on this gloriously blue, sunshiny day.

I have my new toy and I have made one card using it so far.

Well, I had to buy myself a Mother's Day pressie didn't I, especially as I had already bought some Grand Nestabilities LOL

I cut the card from an 8x8 Papermania kraftcard, and the backing, with the GC, the foliage was cut with Marianne and Cheery Lyn dies and the sentiment was stamped and punched with SU :o)

Jackie xx

A wonderful birthday + a new baby card

Good morning bloggers on this gorgeous start to the day. Wall to wall blue here although a tad nippy. I cannot believe it is nearly a week since I last posted, hopefully I will be able to catch up on your blogs over the next day or two.  

I have had a wonderful birthday long weekend, what a shame they have to come to an end! I spent Thursday with my cousin and we went out and had a lovely lunch.  On Friday I went out and bought myself a birthday present. My old compact camera has given me brilliant service for 5 years, but I have now retired it because I wanted something smaller and more up to date. So, I replaced my Nikon Coolpix 1 (6.5 megapixels) with a Nikon Coolpix S3100(14 megapixels) which is bright redLOL. My main camera is still my beloved Nikon D40 DSLR but it isn't always convenient to carry such a big camera around.

Here they are, the old and the new, for size comparison. I can get the new one in my handbag. I have taken over 20,000 photographs (I promise you I am not exaggerating)  with the old and I hope to take at least that many with the new :o)

Onto my card, made yesterday at our wonderful craft get together. I did make others but haven't taken their pics yet.

This is for our hostess's son and DiL on the birth of their gorgeous new granddaughter on Saturday. I used my new Marianne die which my wonderful friends gave me. I couldn't make up my mind in the shop whether to buy it or not, and when we got back to the house they had bought it for me. Aren't friends just the greatest people?

Talking about craftshops, I bought myself two sets of Grand Nesties with my birthday money so now I have to go out and buy a Grand Calibur LOL.

Sorry, I should have warned you it was going to be a long post :o)

Jackie xx

Set of 4 very simple crocus cards

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

This is a set I made using my crocus photographs taken at the same time as the birds (see previous post) last week at St Chad's Water. I do go to St Chad's Water  often as it is only about 3 miles away from me. When I just want to get a bit of fresh air for half an hour or so it is very peaceful and tranquil there.

I have long thought of making a set using the card suit shapes but never got around to it until now.

I opened the photograph in PSE5,  cropped the shapes and saved as PNGs, then printed and hand cut them out, stuck them on to yellow card then hand cut again.

Base card is white linen cut and folded to 6x6, then layers with orange card and Kay&Co paper which I bought nearly 7 years ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leaf vine die is from Memory Box and the sentiment stamp is from Stamps and Smiles.

I am quite pleased with the results, I hope you are too :o)

Jackie xx

A few photographs and a welcome

Good morning everyone, another lovely start to the day with wall to wall blue skies. 

My first task of the day is to say hello and welcome to new followers Elena, Gaia and Marite. I do hope I have spelt them right.

I don't have any cards to show you this morning so here are a few of my latest photographs taken last week at St. Chad's Water.

I created the PNGs in PSE5

Have a lovely day everyone :o)

Jackie xx

With and without ribbon

Good morning everyone, I hope you have the same lovely sunshine and wall to wall blue sky that we have here :o)

On to my cards for today, Yes I have made two variations of the same card.

Fairly simple cards in that they are not covered with embellishments. 

Materials and equipment used:

Brown Bazzill cut and folded to 6x6. 

Paper is from stash so I don't have a name for it.

Stampendous agapanthus cluster stamped onto inked paper. For the inking I used Colorbox liquid chalk pads that I found in the bottom of a box from years ago.

Xcut die, Marianne dies, ribbon scrap.

I hope you like them :o)

Jackie xx

Birthday card for a dear friend

It's safe to show it now her birthday has arrived :o)

My apologies for the blurred pic, it was very difficult to get a good shot, should have used my big camera!

 Trailing begonia photograph I took in my cousin's garden last year, cut with Nesties, plain brown and peachy coloured card used for mats and layers, edges and flutterby from Martha Stewart  punches, Marianne die cut foliage. Base card is white cut and folded to 5x7 :o)

Jackie xx

Another digi page.....

.....this time a 5 generation page for Ryan. I would love to have gotten all those featured together in one photograph for this page but it is impossible, so I have to settle for using old photographs. 

This is a 5 generation page on my side of the family which is why Ryan's Mum isn't on here. If I ever manage to get some photographs of her side of the family I will do a page but it's not ever so likely! Just in case you can't read the the line at the bottom of the page, all of these peeps are still living, which gives me hope LOL. My Auntie Iris will be 87 in May, Auntie Nora will be 95 next month, Uncle Doug is nearly 92, Uncle Raymond is nearly 88 and Uncle Alan is nearly 81. The backdrop is one of my photographs taken at Elvaston Castle, which is only about 2 miles from me :o)

Jackie xx

Another digi page + a welcome

Good morning everyone, I hope you are looking out on the same lovely blue skies as I am and there is no wind for a change.
First up this morning is a welcome to new follower Brenda, lovely to see you :o)

My offering for today is another digi scrapbook page of my Greatgrandson Ryan 
on his 2nd birthday. He was covered in chocolate!

I am quite getting into this digi page way of scrapbooking althought it will never replace the hands on kind. Methinks that when I have completed enough pages of Ryan I will print them out and make up a book for him to have as a keepsake of his early years :o)

I created the backing and text in PSP and the small inset in PSE5. 

The grass is also from PSE5. The gingerbread border, palm tree and monkey were created by my very good friend Pat :o)

Jackie xx

My Easter collection

Good morning everyone,  I hope you are all warm and well. At the moment I have nice blue skies and fluffy white clouds but it's very windy. I haven't ventured outside yet so don't know if it's cold!

Get yourelf a cuppa and get comfy cuz there are several cards to look at. Sorry if they make you nod off :o)

I created the topper from 3 of my photographs, namely the duck, the daffodils and the grass. I put them together in PSP11 and added the bow from my good friend PatEssex from Docrafts.

All backing papers ar Kay and Co.  Embellishments are from Martha Stewart (flutterby), Marianne (corner) and memory Box (leaf vine).

The sentiments are computer generated and cut out with SU and Nestie dies and two are handcut :o)

Jackie xx

Commissioned card

Good morning everyone, let me first welcome new follower Markey, Hi there and thank you for joining my followers :o)

I hope you are all warm and well this morning, it's great to be getting up to no frost or fog.

On to my card for today. 

The commission was a lighthouse on the right and the sentiment on the left. My cousin asked for one of my own photographs converted to pencil so I could colour it in, so here it is. This is the lighthouse at Southwold, Suffolk, taken on a crafting holiday with friends a couple of years or so ago. Coloured with copics, cut with nestie. 

Sentiment is computer generated :o)

Jackie xx