John Next Door Summer Box Kit

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How is your weekend going? The weather has been beautiful so far, I do hope it continues. My hand is healing okay. I have had some issues arranging to have the stitches removed,  not helped by the fact they were due out on Easter Sunday. 

Back in March I made three cards for the John Next Door Summer Box kit. My brief was to make floral cards and to provide step by step instructions with photos for one of the cards. I will have to buy a copy of the magazine to see how the article turned out. 

For this card I use one of my Deco Frame dies. The papers and the flowers are from the papers in the kit. I was able to decoupages the flowers to give some dimension. 

In the background of this card you can see a lattice that was cut with a die three times. All the flowers were made with the dies that came from the kit. I used John Next Door Ivy dies too. The sentiment was made with some of the stamps in the kit. 

For this card I used the patterned papers and the stamps from the kit. I stamped the flowers three times so they could be decoupaged. This is the card I did the step by step for. I had made another card but I had misread the brief. All the card I used was Linen Card they do have some beautiful colours. 

There are some lovely elements in the kit. I didn't really scratch the possibilities. There are some fantastic examples from the whole team in the Crafting with John Next Door, Craft Artist, Presscut, Two Jays and More Facebook Group. 

I hope that you have a very Happy Easter

Hugs Jackie

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Chic in Paris - Two Jays part 2 Simone

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How has your week been? We have been busy. On Wednesday we had a new mattress delivered. Along with the new pillows it is all very comfortable. We are also getting quotes for our conservatory, that had damage in the storm, and the bathroom, which is just tired. My hubby is having a few days away next week to spend time with some of his university buddies. It is so good how they have been able to keep in touch. 

Here is the second set of samples I made for the release of the Chic in Paris range of stamps from Two Jays. This stamp set is called Simone. I think I was sent this set because she is holding a giant coffee cup and I love coffee. 

I have just discovered Versafine Clair Stamp pads. Oh boy with that and a stamp platform stamping has never been so easy. I did the colouring with my Faber Castell colouring pencils. And everything is better with coffee. 

I made an easel card with my Presscut Nested Hexagon dies. It was easy to place a hexagon in the stamping platform and keep turning it to get a circle of stamps. 

This was my hubby's idea. He found a cup in the cupboard that I could decorate. The stamps were just perfect for it. The background was made with different colours of tissue paper and decoupage glue. I stamped the images onto paper so that they would mould to the cup more easily. I used my Faber Castell Polychromo colouring pencils to colour the images and my VersaFine Clair stamp pad did not run. 

You know I love coffee this just had to be done. I used my stamping platform to achieve this result. 

All of these are ideal for a coffee lover just like me. Don't forget to join John on Create and Craft for his 2 hour show on Sunday. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Chic in Paris - Two Jays Stamps

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How are you doing? I am so sorry that I haven't been around much. Life does seem to have become quite hectic. With two lots of parents who are poorly this takes a lot of our time. I am still crafting but I have been working on things that I cannot share yet. Except somethings I only finished at the beginning of this week, have been moved up in the schedules and I can share them now. They will be released on Sunday under the Two Jays brand from Crafts-Too. 

Here are my samples from one of the sets of stamps. The whole range is called Chic in Paris. 

I think I must have used every stamp in this set for this card. I have two wreath templates and I used them both. I masked the edges of the smaller wreath and stamped the girl in the middle. All the colouring was done with my Faber Castell Polychromo colouring pencils. All the card I used is Craft Artist Linen card. Oh they do have some lovely colours. The other thing I love it my stamp platform. There are just so many cool things you can do with it. 

Here is the girl in her entirety. I gave her coloured tights as I thought her dress was too short - I am such a prude. Again this is coloured with my Faber Castell Polychromo colouring pencils. All the card is Linen card.  

I love making easel cards. This time I used my Presscut Oval dies to make the card base and the mats and layers. Yes there is more colouring and more Linen card. 

These stamps will be released on Sunday on Create and Craft. Everything is changing with the Craft Channels and I am very confused. I used to make things for Create and Craft a few years ago. It is like going back in time. I do have another set of cards to share with you using one of the other stamp sets in the range. 

Have a good weekend. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Pretty Little card

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

I hope you are having a good week. We have been busy again this week. Our parents aren't doing well which means there is a lot to do for them. I am finding it so hard to find time to craft at the moment. I am doing lots of colouring every so often I make the images into cards. Here is one of them. 

I have been doing a bit of sorting out and I have found lots of images that needed colouring. 

The stamp is from Stampin Up and I think it is called Peony Blossom. The image was coloured with my Faber Castell Polychromo pencils. The die I used is from Crafter's Companion. 

Here is another card for my stash. I usually make my cards flat for posting. 

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

Take care

Hugs Jackie

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John Next Door Summer Box Kit - Contributor

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How was your week? Have you anything nice planned for the weekend? The Box Kit that I made samples for back in March has recently been released. 

The brief that I was given was to make Clean and Simple cards using the stamps. I also had to provide instructions for the cards and some top tips for card making. 

This seemed to be the favourite card. I used the nested oval dies from Prescut to make the card blank and the layers. The beautiful stamp is in the kit as are the papers. The papers we got were shiny the ones in the kit are mat. 

So I used most of the stamps to make five cards. 

I did a bit of masking to make this card work. 

I did a little second generation stamping on this card to get the variation in colour. 

For any of the colouring I used my Faber Castell Polychromo pencils. 

Here four of the cards in the magazine. You can just see the picture of me. 

The easel card got it's own page it was also one of the cards on the cover. 

I had to share my news with you. 

I hope you are happy for me. 

Have a good weekend. 

Happy crafting

Hugs Jackie

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John Next Door - Limited Edition Mandala kit - Launch Day

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How is your week going?  Hopefully the weather will be a bit nicer today. So we should be able to get out for a walk. 

Today is the launch day for the John Next Door Limited Edition Mandala kit. John will be on Hochanda at 3:00pm. I have a feeling this set will be popular. If you visit the Crafting with John Next Door Facebook group , which you can do HERE, there are many examples of how the dies can be used. 

Here is my final card to share with you. I used the kit to decorate a pop-up box card. The instructions to make these are HERE. 

I realised that the stamped mandala could be cut out with the die. Happy Days. I used papers, sentiments and ribbons to finish this card. I have to say that this was Sam's favourite of the samples I sent in. 

Here is a bonus card. When I have been working on projects there are usually lots of leftovers. I used strips of paper and ribbons to make the background. I had stamped and cut out too many mandalas as well as a sentiment. They all went together to make this card. 

Don't forget to watch John on Hochanda. I am sure to be watching. 

Enjoy your day

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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John Next Door - Limited Edition Mandala Kit - Day 3

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How are we all doing? Not much has happened since yesterday. Though we did get some post and this included  quite a few things we need to sort out for my parents. My dad has got worse and he needs over night care now.  So I need to apply to get his Attendance Allowance increased. The form has taken 19 days to get here. When I send it back it is going to go registered. 

Here is another of the cards I made with the Limited Edition Mandala kit that will be released tomorrow on Hochanda. This one has a splash of colour. 

I used the outer die from the mandala to cut an aperture in the black card. Then I stamped and heat embossed the black card. I raised this layer up on large foam pads. I choose one of the patterned papers that come in the kit. I used copper card and black card to cut out the mandala and this was stuck to the patterned paper which is below the black heat embossed sheet. I used some ribbon to enhance the design. 

Have a good day. I think it is going to be a stay home and craft kind of a day. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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John Next Door - Mandala Special Edition Kit - Day 2

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

I hope you had a good day yesterday. We had a walk and we did our shopping after. I did spend the rest of the afternoon making cards. 

Here is another of the cards that I made with the John Next Door Limited Edition Mandala kit. The kit has dies, stamps, ribbons and papers. 

For this card I used all of the dies. Did you spot the corner dies? Some of the paper and one of the stamps. I used the mandala stamp to make a background. This is a larger card it is 7" x 7". For the stamping I use Izink white ink and a transparent Izink embossing powder. I also used some of the ribbon. 

I will be back tomorrow with another card. I enjoyed using this kit. It is available on Thursday from Hochanda. 

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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John Next Door Limited Edition Mandala Kit

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How was your weekend? On Saturday I had a really bad headache which really stopped me doing much at all. Though when it stopped raining we did get out for a walk this seemed to ease my head a lot. On Sunday we went to one of our local Country Parks this one runs along by the Solent. There is also a war graves cemetery there. 

Back in November I was asked to be a Guest Designer for the John Next Door brand. I was sent the shutter card die set to use for that. The post is HERE.  Just before Christmas I was asked if I would like to be a full time Angel (that's what the Design Team get called). Of course I said yes. 

This is my second outing with the Mandala Limited Edition Kit. The kit includes dies, stamps, papers and ribbons. I had lots of fun making cards with the kit. Here is the first one I made. 

I only took one picture of this card. I used two of the stamps and a few of the dies to make this card. The white mandalas are stamped and the black ones die cut. In the background is some of the paper. The pad I was sent had white paper in it too. The sentiment was stamped in white and embossed with a white powder. 

I think this makes are rather stylish birthday card. 

John's shows are on Hochanda on Thursday 21st at 3.00pm and 7.00pm. If you like the kit as much as me there might not be a second show. 

Have a good week. 

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Cute Little Hedgehogs in a Line

 Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How was your weekend? We had a quiet day on Saturday. There were lots of jobs around the house and garden that we caught up on. In the garden I harvested 1kg of potatoes that I had grown in a pot. We had some them with our dinner on Sunday they were delicious. On Sunday we had a walk to our local country park to see the field of sunflowers there. We did see the sunflowers but we also got caught in the rain. Later we went to have a cup of tea with our good friends. Sunday was a good day. 

I have been tidying my desk and going through  my files and I found this cute little card that I hadn't shared with you. 

The background paper and the ribbon was in my stash as well as the buttons. 

This is an image stamped with a Little Clair's stamp set. It is such a shame they are no longer in business. I coloured the stamped image with my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens. I did do this some time ago I found the image when I was doing some tidying. I no longer colour with those pens but I use them to make backgrounds. 

This is one of the cards that I will have on sale at the Hampshire Open Studios event. SeaDrift Studio where I will be showing some cards will be open Bank Holiday weekend. 

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Challenge 62 at Crafting Happiness Challenges 

Have a good week

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Always Fun Challenges - Fun at the Beach

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

How was your weekend. Ours always seem to be busy. We are now making the table bits and pieces for the wedding in Malta. We haven't got long to get this sorted. I am so glad my husband helps me with things like this.

Being Monday the new challenge starts at Always Fun Challenges this time the theme is At the Beach. I am sharing my Dad's birthday card.

I made the frame for the card with the Double Pierced Rectangle dies from Creative Expressions. I used Distress inks with Brushes to create the background. 

I used the Sweet Dixie Beach Huts clear stamp set. To stamp the beach huts and other elements. I did all the colouring with my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens]

I added bunting and a Happy Birthday. 

I also added the word Dad. 

I would like to enter the following challenges: 

The Anything Goes Challenge at the Seize the Birthday Challenge blog

Challenge 212 at the Crafting From the Heart Challenge blog

Challenge 182 at the Dream Valley Challenge blog

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Always Fun Challenges - the theme is Summer Fun

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends and Visitors

I hope you had a good weekend and are ready for the week ahead. We spent most of the weekend clearing the ivy from our garage roof. Our neighbours are away which means we can attack the ivy from their side. We did say to them that we would be doing this.

Being Monday the new challenge starts  at Always Fun Challenges the theme this time is Summer Fun. 

I used one of my inky kitchen roll backgrounds on this card. 

The challenges are always fun to join in with. 

The stamp I used  was  one I won from Creative Expressions some time ago. I stamped with Archival ink onto water colour card then I coloured with my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens. 

The shells were cut with a set that I bought last year when I spent the day with our daughter while her fiance and my husband went on a stag do. She bought them as a treat for me. 

I will add a sentiment to this card when I decide who it is going to be sent to. 

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Challenge 209 at the Crafting From the Heart Challenge blog

Challenge 372 at the My time to Craft Challenge blog

Have a great week.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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Brushos and Pixie Powder Sympathy Card

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

Good morning. It is so wet and damp this morning. I have a meal cooking in the slow cooker. It seems like the perfect day to stay in and craft. I hope you stay safe and warm.

I was looking through my files of photos and I came across this card that I haven't shared yet. It is a Sympathy card they are never easy to make. My husband wanted a card for someone at his work who had just lost his father-in-law.

I made two sheets of the background card with a stamp and a mixture of wet Brushos and Pixie Powders on my craft mat. Once I had finished stamping I spritzed the card to make the colours blend and mellow. I made one sheet a bit lighter so that the main stamp would show up a bit better. 

This is a Woodware stamp called Going to Seed. I stamped it with Perfect Medium and heat embossed it with a black powder. 

I do like creating these background but I do get very messy. I do have lots of inky kitchen roll that I should be making into backgrounds. 

I am not going to be around much for the next few days. We are visiting Disneyland Paris for a few days with our daughter and son-in-law. I hope the weather is kind to us. We are all going to take waterproofs I think we will need them. 

Enjoy the rest of the week. 

I would like to enter challenge 60 at the A Bit More Time to Craft Challenge Blog.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Jackie

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My Favourite Cards of 2017

Hello My Crafty Blog Friends

I hope you had an enjoyable Christmas. Ours went like this we sang in the Choir again on Christmas Eve and our daughter and son-in-law came to the service to see us and share a meal after. Then on Christmas Day we went to Newbury to share the day with our daughter, our son-in-law and our new in-laws. We had a lovely time together. On Boxing Day we visited my husband's parents in Aldershot they were having a drop in. It was lovely to see them and lots of other members of the family. Things are a bit calmer for us  now in between Christmas and New Year. I am hoping that we will see the new Star Wars film at some point.

I was thinking of doing a Top Five cards of the Year but is it so hard to choose so I have decided to do a card for each month.

January 

February

March

April 

May 

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

There you have it. This has been the year that our daughter got married. I retired. My colouring has improved. I purchased a stamping platform and that has improved my stamping. I have won a few challenges and been published in magazines a few times. We had some nice trips away. All in all it has been a good year for us. I wonder what next year will bring. 

Happy New Year to you and your families. 

Take care. 

Hugs Jackie

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