Welcome

A very warm welcome to my blog, which is mostly about card-making, a bit about work and family, and a few odds and ends. I am fairly new to this blogging lark, so please bear with me if I make some glaring errors.



I'll be delighted if you would like to become a follower, so please leave me details of your blog, as I'd love to visit.

xx Jill








Saturday 18 September 2010

birthday card number five!

This is my fifth birthday card this week, this time for my son-in-law, Bruce, who is very interested in motor racing.
















I used a die-cut decoupage for the car, as 3d cards are always popular with the guys; and some clipart for the flags and skidmark.  Both the blue and red cardstock are pearlised, as I couldn't find anything bright enough left in my coredinations stash, so had to resort to some older cardstock to get the right colour-match.  The awkward part of this quite simple card was trying to get the diagonal red stripe and skidmark to fit the card, and involved some maths (not my best thing)!

Although I often struggle with male cards, I enjoyed making this one, as it seemed to come together automatically.  A couple of days off now for teaching, before the next marathon card-making session.

Thanks for visiting my blog, and for any comments you'd like to leave.  xx Jill

Thursday 16 September 2010

the fourth birthday card this week!





















This is the fourth birthday card this week, and still one more to go for my son in law on Friday!  I need to get started on Christmas cards really,  but there's still lots to do before I can get going on those.

This image, by Ching Chou Kuik, is from Sweet Pea Stamps in the States, which I stamped and then coloured with copic markers.  The sentiment is cut with a nestie, and the ribbon and most of the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts (others are Prima).  Although the image looks light and the red flowers look horribly dark, they are much brighter irl, but as the weather is poor at present, I wasn't able to get a picture that was anywhere near the real colours.  Autumn's definitely coming looking at the forecast today, so I'll be making Scotch Broth tomorrow!

 The background paper is Basic Grey (Euphoria I think), from Jill at The Hobby House, and cardstock from A Maze of Memories.

Thanks very much for visiting: and please leave a comment if you can.  xx Jill

Wednesday 15 September 2010

40th birthday book

This is a hardboard book for our son Alastair who is forty tomorrow.  It was trickier to make than I thought, and also took longer, but I hope he will be pleased with the result.  I think the hardest bit was getting the paper stuck down on the cut-out number 40, and edging it all with teal embossing ink, and then glitter to give a neat edge.

On the inside back page I used a Sugar Nellie stamp "Rock Idol", as he is an excellent singer and guitarist and plays in a band.  Everything (including the sentiments) is coloured with copic markers from Wendy at Stamps and Memories.




I used Black Market Society papers throughout (from Jill at the Hobby House), who also supplied the tons of glitter glue and the little charms. There are several computer generated sentiments and stars.




Thank you so much for visiting my blog, and for any comments you would like to leave.  xx Jill

Sunday 12 September 2010

wedding card in silver and white

A commissioned bookatrix card for the niece of my son-in-law, who got married this weekend.  Lots of white printed Kanban card, white stardream card from Craftwork cards, silver linen card and peeloffs.  The flowers and pearls are from Hobbycraft, which I made into a small arrangement.  The heart die, which I often use, is from cuttlebug, and it also appears on the box.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog, and for any comments you would like to leave.  xx Jill

Saturday 11 September 2010

40th birthday card



I really love this Sweet pea stamp by Ching Chou Kuik which I got from the States, and coloured with copic markers and transparent glitter pens from Wendy at Stamps and Memories.  The flowers are a mixture of Prima and WOC flowers, and the papers are Jasmyne from Bo Bunny.

I diecut the little label with nesties and coloured the ribbon with copics to match, and used plain cardstock from coredinations.























This is a card for a friend who hits the big 40 tomorrow, so I hope she will like it.

Thanks very much for visiting my blog and for any comments you might leave.  xx Jill

Friday 10 September 2010

Birthday card for daughter

It's Melanie's birthday today, so I made a card using one of my all time favourite stamps from WOJ:  Fall Willow with grapes.


I really love this really pretty little stamp, which I coloured with copic markers from Wendy at Stamps and Memories, who also supplied the spica pens, the nestabilities and the MS leaf punch.  It's hard to see the sparkle on a photograph but it's definitely there irl!  It's quite a simple layout as everything else is busy, busy, busy.  The ribbon, the papercellar papers and some of the Prima flowers are from Hobbycraft, and the beautiful little grape and leaf charms, the pearl brads, and the glimmer mist on all the flowers come from Jill at The Hobby House






















 The little grape charms and the leaves were coloured with copics to match the image, which is easier to see on the detail picture, and I also used the Papercellar dps for the insert.


















I'm entering this one in the ABC colour challenge on the docraft website, as the theme is A for Amethyst.  Thanks so much for looking at my blog, and for any comments you would like to leave.

xx Jill

Tuesday 7 September 2010

cards made in August






















Another new post today: I'm trying to catch up with all the cards I made in August, and put them onto my blog.

This was an anniversary card for my daughter and her husband for their thirteenth wedding anniversary last week, using a Craft Creations decoupage which I've had for a long time, and glittered with Stickles stardust. 

It's very simple in layout, with Bazzill Bling cardstock from A Maze of Memories, some silver embossed card, and some pretty self-adhesive ribbon.  The little flowers are Petaloo from Wendy at Stamps and Memories, and the leaves are punched with a MS branch punch, and they are all coloured with copic markers.  The sentiment is computer generated.






















I used this La Pashe image to make a card for our very dear friend Sandy's 65th birthday.  This was a perfect image, as he's a retired pub landlord.  Although the decoupage was quite fiddly to cut out, everything is beautifully printed on high quality paper, which makes life a bit easier.  It's just a very simple background with sepia cardstock, as the image is so busy.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog, and for any comments you would like to leave.  xx Jill

astronaut birthday card


A birthday card for our little step-great-grandson Maxwell, who will soon be three.  He is a little bundle of fun, and very cute too with beautiful brown eyes and lots of curls!

 

I've used one of my favourite Pink Gem stamps "Space Miki" (complete with a little alien) which I've coloured with copic markers. I've used these Aimee Asher robot papers before, and they print out beautifully. The plain cardstock is coredinations, and I used a very old sentiment stamp from Hero Arts. Can you spot the orange glitter around the image and on the brads? It came in a set, and I really thought I would never, ever use it, and I'm still not sure about it, but it does look better irl!! What's that about never throwing anything away in case it comes in handy? I'm entering this in the Pink Gem challenge from their super sketch this month, so I'd better get on quickly, as it closes soon!



Thanks so much for visiting my blog, and for any comments you leave.  xx Jill B

Monday 6 September 2010

wedding card using bookatrix


This is a card made for my son's partner Tracy, whose best friend is getting married on Friday.

I've used a decoupaged flower motif for the main image, with purple and ivory pearlised cardstock.  The hearts are cut using a cuttlebug die, and peeloff corners, lines and letters, a little stickles glitter and a few lilac pearls complete the card.  The box has another decoupaged pansy motif from the same set.


I always enjoy making wedding cards, (especially bookatrix), and have another couple coming up over the next week or two, but now I'm working on cards for the loads of birthdays that pop up in September.


Thanks very much for looking at my gallery, and for any comments you wold like to leave.  xx Jill

Saturday 4 September 2010

Thank you card

This thank you card is for one of our really knowledgeable dance judges, who came to the school to adjudicate our Rainbow Awards for the little ones.  The little dancers all gained excellent marks, so we were very pleased.

Fairy - on tiptoe is one of my favourite LOTV images, which I often stamp up, and colour with copic markers.  The Basic Grey dps are from the "Euphoria" stack (from Jill at The Hobby House), and the background card is Bazzill Bling.  There is plenty of stickles glitter glue, and the flowers and brads are from a set by Crafty Feeling, which have been spritzed with glimmer mist (also at The Hobby House).

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog, and for any comments you would like to leave.  xx Jill

Thursday 2 September 2010

6th birthday card


This was a birthday card (which I made when I was away on holiday) for our gorgeous grandson Drew for his sixth birthday.  He loves dinosaurs, and has got lots of really big plastic ones in his bedroom which he loves to play with.  This set of papers was a digi-download from Nitwit collections , which I printed out and then decoupaged, with a bit of stickles glue.  The papers in the set are really nice, and I especially liked those jungly leaves, which I edged with a darker green copic marker.  The little dinosaurs and trees etc are very cute, and there's loads to choose from in the set.  The dark green card is my favourite coredinations from A Maze of Memories.

The inside was also decorated with dps and another little decoupaged dinosaur.  We posted it off from the Isle of Wight, as Drew loves to get letters in the post, and my daughter said he really loved it!  Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of the card, so I had to wait until I got back to my daughter's home.  My senior moments are beginning to join together to become days and weeks!!




Thanks very much for visiting my blog, and please feel free to leave any comments.  xx Jill