Birthday card for an old friend

 This is a birthday card for a very dear friend, who is also a dance teacher.  I taught ballet to their son, Michael, many years ago (when he was "nobbut a lad"), and he still works professionally in West End Theatres.  He's currently Choreographer and Dance Captain for the musical Billy Elliot, which has been running for many years now.  Michael and his partner are expecting their first baby at the end of the month, so this will be grandchild number eight for our friends, and they are just as delighted as if it were their first!

Sorry about the quality and odd colouration of the photos again, but the weather is really too poor to take decent ones.  The second photo just  looks a bit orangey.

I made an easel card with Annalee papers from Dies to Die For, with my usual coredinations from a Maze of Memories.  This is a new favourite image from Magnolia, and I expect to use this one many times in the future. Although she's a very pretty ballerina, I'd love to tuck in the bows on her pointe shoes, and tie that hair back into a nice neat bun!!  The little corner diecut is a cuttlebug one, the tag is from Spellbinders, and the lattice border is one of the new punches from EK.  The flowers are a mix of Prima and WOC, and the little charms are quite old ones from Jill at The Hobby House.

Thanks so much for looking at my blog, and please leave me a comment, so that I can come and visit your blog too!  xx Jill

simple wedding card

My daughter, Louise, wanted a very simple card in cream and gold with pearls for her friend's wedding.  I really don't do understated, so found it quite hard to make this one.  I started another card, and then decided it was in my usual busy style, so abandoned that and went back to the drawing board.  What can I say? I'm a more is more girl!!

Even then, I took about three elements off this one before finally ending up with this version!  The plain cream and the rose patterned card is from Brother Sleep, whose card I came across at their stand in the Ally Pally exhibition in September, where I also bought the patterned gold (I can't remember which stand).  The heart motif, heart border and leaf are MS punches from Wendy at Stamps and Memories.  Ribbon and flowers are from Hobbycraft.  There are also (whisper it quietly) peeloff lines and a peeloff sentiment.  Other than bookatrix cards where I nearly always use the fine border lines, I can't remember the last time I used any of these on a card,and I've got THOUSANDS OF THE DAMNED THINGS!!!!  Anyone want any?  Please drop me an email if you do - I'll happily pay the postage to get rid of them!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog.  xx Jill

80th birthday card

Just back from sunny Portugal, to the rubbish British weather.  Sorry about the really poor photo. The light is very dull, with such dark and dismal weather, so the background of the card is rather dark, and the image and flowers are very purple.  I promise it looks much better irl!

This is an eightieth birthday card for Dorothy, a retired magistrate, who is an old friend of Joe's, and comes along to all the social events.  She was a keen vintner in her former life, so she was very pleased with the card, and was going to show it to her grand-daughter who is also heavily into card-making.  We all had a chatty lunch together at a posh restaurant, which was very nice. ( You always know it's posh when you get very small portions!!).

This is one of my very favourite images from Whiff of Joy, and is "Willow with grapes", which I've coloured with copic markers.  I had to change the wine coloured card with copics as I had nothing to match in my stash.  The flowers are a mix of Prima flowers and hydrangeas and WOC roses. 

I also had to colour the little metal charms and leaf.  The gold leaves are cut out with a Papermania punch, which I really love, although I needed to go over the veining with a small ball tool to create better indentations.  No stickles today, as everything was extra busy, but there is some glimmer mist on the flowers, which gives a bit of a sheen.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog.  xx Jill

birthday card for an old friend

My dear friend Christine is "Granny" to her eight grandchildren, who now all live nearby to her home in a beautiful part Scotland by the Tweed.  Their son and his wife moved into their street with their two little ones a couple of months ago, so she's been doing lots of babysitting since then!

I really love this Belles 'n Whistles stamp from Quixotic Paperie called "Baking with Nana", which is coloured with copic markers, and the sentiment is from Whiff of Joy.  The plain papers are coredinations, and the dps are SEI papers, with flowers from Prima and WOC.  The edge punch is Martha Stewart, and the little charm is from Mei flower crafts.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog.  xx Jill

birth of our new grandson Joshua

A card for our son Alastair and his partner Tracy on the birth of their beautiful baby son, Joshua Joseph.

It is a simple decoupage image, with American Crafts dps and baby embellishments from my stash.  Plain card is Bazill Bling, and I've  used Stickles glue in the Waterfall colour.  The large 8x8 card blank is from Craftwork cards.

Big sister Charlotte is very proud of her new brother, and told the nuurse that she'd been waiting years for him!!

Thanks very much for visiting my blog.  xx Jill

Natasha's first birthday

What a little cutie is this little stamp from LOTV: I've just been waiting for the right opportunity to ink her up.

I can't believe our beautiful baby grand-daughter is one year old today.  She's toddling about quite purposefully now, and being a menace to the dog!

The stamped image is coloured with copic markers, and I have to say that colouring the hair was the most difficult, as it's so wispy: not sure I've done it full justice.  The sentiment stamp is from Pink Gem.  The papers are from a lovely set by Imaginisce, and the flowers (sadly now nearly all used up) are old Prima ones with WOC baby roses at the centre.  The two edge punches are by EK, and cut beautifully through a medium weight card.  The little pink Gems are from Jill at The Hobby House, and plain card is coredinations, with lots of my favourite Stardust stickles.

 

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

last but one of the bookatrix wedding cards

Thank goodness I've now nearly completed all the bookatrix wedding/anniversary cards on order (just one last wedding and one 50th anniversary one to do)!  They are very time-consuming, and although people always say they love to receive them, I feel I now need to be a bit more inspired, and do something different.

Cream patterned and gold embossed card are from the craft exhibition at Ally Pally last month, where I also stocked up on the curvy peeloffs.  These bookatrix cards are really the only things I use them for now, although I'm determined to use up some of my enormous stock of images, letters and sentiments peeloffs at Christmas, if I get time.  Flowers and beads are from Hobbycraft.

Thanks very much for visiting my blog.  xx Jill

Joshua Joseph

Just a few pictures of our gorgeous new grandson Joshua, born at 3.30pm on Thursday 7th October 2010.

He really is the cutest little bundle, and big sister Charlotte is already besotted, not to mention the grandparents!

Maybe I'm just a fraction biased, but we are very lucky to have such beautiful grandchildren!

Thanks for all the kind messages we've received about Joshua: I really appreciate them all.  xx Jill

A birthday card for Allan, my daughter's close friend who is a keen golfer.  I can't find the details of who gave me this decoupage image, but many thanks to them.   It is a perfect match for the Papermania Persimmon dps, with some coredinations cardstock.  The little tag comes in the paper pack, and the buttons are from my stash.  There is some red stickles glitter glue lurking around, and I decorated the inside too.

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

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