Some of my favourite makes from 2021

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

I hope that you all had a good Christmas. We did get to stay with our Daughter and Son-in-law. We had a lovely meal together and plenty of walks with the dog. I am sharing our special family news: in June we will become Grandparents. I still can't quite believe it. As a family we feel very blessed. There is still a long way to go but the signs are looking good. 

My back has continued to be a problem. I have taken to use the laptop standing up in the kitchen, 

I thought I would share some of my favourite makes from the year.  Some of these bring back special memories. 

I have made a few Box cards this year. This is the one I made for our daughter's 30th birthday. I drew the paper myself. This reminds me of not only our lovely daughter but also of my love of doodling. 

This is another favourite design of card. It is a Diamond Point card and there are lots of instructions on YouTube for how to make them. On my blog this has been the most looked at card of the year. 

Here is the Christmas card I gave to my in-laws this year. They are both in their 90s and just recently they have started to need care. It is always nice to give them something special. The card was made entirely with John Next Door dies. 

This twisted easel card was my Father-in-Laws birthday card. He still gets out in his garden every day. 

I have been on the Beccy's Place design team for a long time. I do like using her images. The background was made with Snippets which I like doing a lot. There always seem to be more Snippets. 

Here is a special birthday card I made again all with John Next Door dies. I am very thrilled to be one of his Angels. 

I also love reusing old cards. This image worked so well with the paper. 

Here is the Christmas card I made for our Daughter and Son-in-law. Our daughter has always loved penguins. These are Two Jays penguins. I had fun colouring them and cutting them our. 

This is one of the cards that I made for the John Next Door Christmas box kit. I wrote two articles for the magazine, It is so lovely to get opportunities like this.  

Here is one of my favourite cards I made for Beccy's Place. I do love sunflowers. 

Lastly this is the Christmas card I made for our very good friends (the ones we go on Beatles trips with). Our Daughter drew them for us. I also drew the wreath. I know they were thrilled with this card. I am hoping to do more with our Daughter's images in the future. 

I won't be making so many cards going forward. I have decided to stay on the Beccy's Place Design team and on John's Team of Angels. I will only be making special cards for people in between. I expect I will be blogging a lot less. This was the first year for ages we sent bought Christmas Cards. 

Happy New Year to you all. I do hope that 2022 is kinder to all of us. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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The last of my makes with the John Next Door Christmas Box kit.

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How is your week going? We seem to be getting busier and busier. At the moment we are trying to sort out care for my in-laws. They have done so well they are both in their 90s and now is the time for a bit of extra  help. So there is a lot to be done. Fortunately we were able to get petrol so we can do all the driving around we need to do. 

These are the last of the cards I made for the release of the John Next Door Christmas Craft kit. These cards use some of the extra cards that were in the One Day Special along with the Box Kit. Everything proved to be very popular. I have ordered a few of the bits I didn't get to play with before the launch. 

I just love the papers that came with the kit. The papers I used are shiny more like the ones that come in the paper pad. For this card I made a background with strips of paper and then I used the embossing folder from the Box Kit. 

This card is made with the papers and the Holly frame. The corners are from a previous Christmas release. 

I just had to use the Silent Night die with the Silent Night paper. The Holley adds an extra Christmassy touch. 

Here we go tartan paper, the embossing folder, foliage from the Box Kit and the Silent Night die set. 

Final card with the papers the Holly frame and the Silent Night. 

Here are all the cards together. I made 15 cards for the launch shows. I know the other Angels made lots too. All the dies, papers and stamps work so well together they are joy to use. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Two Jays Gnomes for Christmas and other occassions

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

I hope you had a good weekend. 

I am scheduling this post to show the Two Jays Gnome stamps. Here are the cards I made. 

This is just a simple CAS style card using the stamps. The colouring was done with my Faber Castell Colouring pencils. 

These gnomes are so cute. The trees are from Finleys Trees dies set. I used the Stencil Christmas Sentiments dies for the sentiment. Of course I used the Stepper  Fold card die set. 

Just to show that Gnomes aren't just for Christmas. The  Stepper Fold card die set if very versatile. 

I do like making box cards. It is a great way to showcase the gnomes. 

There is one more set of cards to come on Wednesday. 

Enjoy your week. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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John Next Door Christmas Limited Edition Kit

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How  has your week been? Do you have something nice planned for the weekend. We don't have any definite plans we will just see what happens. 

Today John Lockwood aka John Next Door released his limited edition Christmas Kit on the Craft Store. Here are the cards I made with the kit and a few other older dies and papers. 

I think this card uses just about everything in the kit apart from the stars. I made the white specs on the paper with a white Posca Pen. 

Here is what you get in the kit. That is double sided glitter card. It is brilliant for making ornaments. 

For this card I used the Alphabet Stencil dies along with corner dies from the kit. 

Those snow flakes are so pretty. I did add stars to this card. 

For this card I cut the snowflake in white a few times. I laid them on the backing paper and I ran this through my die cutting machine. This imbeds them into the paper a bit. The sentiment is an older John Next Door die. 

Here you have a nice simple but effect cards. Not all cards for Christmas need to be complicated. 

I do like making pop-up box cards. There are instructions for them on my blog HERE. It was great having double sided glitter card as I didn't have to worry about the backs of the snowflakes. 

Here are all the makes together. I do wonder if any of them will be on telly. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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John Next Door Christmas Release One

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How was your weekend? We had a nice time. On Saturday it was my husband's birthday and with our son-in-law's he picked up our new car. This also meant that I got to spend some time with our daughter like we used to do. We even watched some trashy wedding themed telly together. When we were all back together we shared a nice meal and some birthday cake. On Sunday we had a quieter day though we did pop out to a garden centre. We just need to get our old car taken away. 

At the weekend John Lockwood aka John Next Door released part one of his Christmas selection. Here are the samples I made with the dies and stamps. 

Aren't those dies just stunning. When you use the small poinsettia die you get so many flowers. 

I do like making slimline cards. The sentiment was foiled with my Kaleido. 

The dies work well on a gift bag. 

I love these snowflakes I should have used them more. 

That mandala is so pretty and there are so many ways to cut it and arrange it. 

Here I put two of the Baroque frames together. They are ideal for ribbon. I love those corners. 

Another one with the Baroque frame. 

I think I used most things on this card. 

This is a picture heavy post. I did have fun with these dies and stamps. Foiling with the Kaleido works very well especially now I have learnt to leave the ink to dry for a long time. I have also changed my stamping platform. 

Have a great week. 

Happy crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Madonna with Child for Christmas

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How has your week been? We have a a trip to meet up with  my sister to discuss family matters. The trouble is in the end she wasn't well enough to join us. So instead we saw some nice National Trust properties and had some lovely walks in the woods. It is good to be home now. 

Here is another Christmas card. I am very behind on my Christmas card making this year. I have made a lot of Christmas cards but most of them have gone off as samples. 

On this card I used two types of Claritystamp Designer paper. The die is the Madonna Window Aperture Clarity Freshcut die. This is a good die for paper piecing. For the wording I used the Christmas Words Stickers from Claritystamp. 

I was very pleased with how this card worked out. I might just make a few more of them. 

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Challenge #552 at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge

Challenge #99 at the Holly and the Ivy Christmas Challenge blog

Challenge #36 at the Merry Little Christmas Challenge blog

Have a good weekend. 

Happy crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Forest Scene Christmas Card

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How has your week been? The weather has been lovely. We have spent a lot of time in the garden again. It is good to make the most of it while the weather is so nice. 

I treated myself to three die set from the  new Christmas release from the John Next Door range. They are: Jane's Tree, Sam's Circles and Christmas Time. I used dies from all three of the sets to make this card. 

I used the background die from the Sam's Circles die set. It does cut very nicely.

The scene come with the Sam's Circles die set. The holly wreath was made with dies from the Christmas Time die set. 

 The sentiment came from the Jane's Tree die set. 

We had some good news on Wednesday. Rosie our cow, who lives in France with Katie and Sven, had a calf. Both are doing well. We do like having a cow thought we have never met her. If we can travel next year we might go and stay on the farm. 

I am so pleased I treated myself. All the die sets I bought work so well together. I am looking forward to having another play with them I can see lots of possibilities. 

I would like to enter the following challenges: 

The September Challenge at the Merry Little Christmas Challenge blog

Challenge 70 at the Holly and the Ivy Christmas Challenge blog

Challenge 131 at the Make My Monday Challenge blog

Challenge 66 at the Crafting Happiness Challenge blog

Challenge 42 at the 2 Crafty Critter Crazies Challenge blog

Challenge 42 at the Crafty Animals Challenge blog

Challenge 193 at the Creative Fingers Challenge blog

Have a great weekend

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Winter Wonderland Challenge blog theme follow the sketch and Embossing

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How has your week been?  We had a meal out on Wednesday with the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme. It was so weird sitting in a restaurant after so long. Today is my hubby's birthday and we are off the the Weald and Downland museum. Our tickets are booked. We keep being reminded of it when we watch the Repair Shop and it isn' far from us. In the evening some friends are coming to supper. On Saturday our daughter and son-in-law are coming with afternoon tea. That should be nice too. I will let you know how we get on. 

The new challenge has started at the Winter Wonderland Challenge blog. The theme this time is to follow one of the two sketches and to include some embossing. The Sponsor is Dr Digi. 

Now you have seen my card. I have a bit of a confession. Well I was so intent on following the sketch that I didn't included any embossing. I was pleased with how the card turned out and I didn't really have time to make another card. I hope I am forgiven for my oversight. 

Here are the two sketches to follow. I adapted the first one to suit a square card. I like square cards. 

There are many wonderful images in the store. Click on the logo and you will be taken there. 

This image is called Selfie Santa and it is available HERE.  The image was printed onto Neenah Card Stock and was coloured with my Prismacolor Pencils. 

The sentiment I found in my stash. 

There you have it. They are rather lovely sketches to follow. Why not give our challenge a try. 

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Challenge 501 at Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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