grand-daughter's 10th birthday card

It was our beautiful grand-daughter, Beth's 10th birthday on Tuesday, so I made this card for her using Magnolia stamps.    She's keen on horse-riding, and is a delightful, gentle child, loved by everyone who knows her.

I found the Kanban background card in Hobbycraft (25% off too, which was a bonus!).  I cut out all the stamped images, adding a few punched flowers too with pearl centres.  Colouring the image always takes time, but adding the cutting out made it twice as long!!  Plain cardstock is Coredinations from A Maze of Memories.

The stamps are Tilda's Brunte horse; Tilda with halter; and gate with flowers, which I got from the lovely people at Sir Stampalot, who are very efficient and always have quick delivery times.  I coloured the stamping with copic markers from Wendy at Stamps and Memories, and put everything onto little foam stickers - only 1mm though as I didn't want everything to stick out too much.  I'm not sure that the perspective's quite right, as the figures don't look grounded, but as my husband says: "these little people have no noses or mouths - why are you worried about perspective?"

Did you notice there's no glitter on this card?  I need to go and lie down in a darkened room I think: I must be sickening for something!

Thanks so much for reading my blog.  I'll be away for a week, and then busy with Regional Finals, so won't be doing much blogging.  Please leave me a comment and I'll come and visit when I've got a moment.

xx Jill

favourite colour combo

I was very chuffed to make the top three in Cards for Men at the beginning of the month with my diy bear card.  what a nice surprise when I came back from my holiday!

Just returned from sunny Portugal where we had a fantastic time with great weather - 28 degrees on Monday and a bit too hot - but I'm really not complaining!!  I'd forgotten that I hadn't posted this card on my blog, which was for Melanie and family, so here goes!

This is a WOJ stamp from last year's Spring sheet "Birdie Love", designed by Elizabeth Bell, and is coloured with copic markers from Wendy at Stamps and Memories.  The design paper is from Prima "Sparkling Spring", and these papers come in some very yummy colours, including one of my favourite colour combos, pink and aqua.

The ribbon and bow are from the FF Spring ribbon collection, and the flowers are a mix of WOC and Prima, which have been coloured with copics to match the Bazzill cardstock.  There is Glimmer Mist (from
Jill at the Hobby House) on the flowers, and a little Stickles glitter glue.  Quite a simple layout so that the corners of the paper would show.

Tip: I've had a couple of queries about the pearly punched leaves, but they are really very simple!  I don't use pearlised card at all, as it clogs the punches, and doesn't come in the colours I need to match my card.  I usually colour some white pearl paper with two mid shades of copic markers, by scribbling them randomly over the paper and then using a paler shade to blend them together.  Then I use an MS/ Nellie's branch or leaf punch to cut out the leaves.  They only need a little Extra Tacky glue to hold them on the card.

I've got more into the copic markers and I tend to use them for all sorts of things, like colouring whole flowers and card edges.  Thanks to Wendy and her inspiring teaching, I've become a bit more confident with my copic markers, so I've recently begun to add a little matching colour to backing papers, ribbons, colouring white flowers and adding colour inside the centre of roses, just to tie up the whole colour scheme together, as shown in the pic above. Whatever next?  Watch this space, as I'm going on the "Next Step" copic course at the end of June, so you may just find out after that!

I am entering the following challenges:
http://everybody-art-challenge.blogspot.com/ - flowers
http://toptiptuesday.blogspot.com/ - flower frenzy
http://dreamvalleychallenges.blogspot.com/ - flowers
http://crazy4challenges.blogspot.com/ - lots of flowers
http://paperplaychallenges.blogspot.com/ - show your style

A very warm welcome to my new followers, and grateful thanks to all those who regularly visit my blog - it's a pleasure to know you're around!  Please leave me a comment I'll try and pop over to your blog when I have a moment.  xx Jill

daughter's birthday card

A bithday card for our dear daughter, Louise, who has her birthday today.  I can't believe our baby girl is thirty-eight!!  Where have all those years gone?

This image is "Shy Willow" and they are from an old stamp set by Elizabeth Bell for Whiff of Joy, (also strawberries and sentiment).  I'm quite fond of the red and orange combination and have used it quite a lot in the past.  The papers are from my stash, the image and strawberries are coloured with copic markers, and the flowers are a mix of WOC and Prima.  The leaves are punched with a Nellie's paper punch, and are much closer in colour to Willow's apron irl, than it appears on the photo.

We're off to sunny Portugal tomorrow, so no more cards posted for about ten days.  We can only take one case as we're flying Easyjet, and we can't afford the second mortgage it would need to take an extra case or the cost of excess baggage. Only 20 kilos too, so a very mean allowance! No more bringing back lots of goodies from the market. Sigh!!

I always appreciate it if you leave me a comment, and I can then visit your blog too!  Many thanks for coming to call.  xx Jill B