another birthday card

A birthday card for my lovely friend Cathy.  Joe and I spent half-term week with Cathy and Tony in Wales, and not only were we blessed with glorious weather, but the company was excellent too.  I did manage to get a little card-making done, and the "boys" did some modelling.  One evening Cathy and I sat with my bead box, and whilst I made a pair of simple ear-rings, she made her first beaded bracelet.  It looked gorgeous too!  As she is a lover of beautiful things, I knew I had to find a special image for her birthday.

This gorgeous stamp is Ching-Chou Kuik's "The Serene Night" from Sweet pea stamps in the States, and is right up there amongst my favourites.  I have lashed out and bought several of these stamps, as they are so beautiful, and the art work has such clarity.  As the stamp and background papers are quite busy, I didn't go too mad on the flowers and gems.

I coloured the image and and the Petaloo flowers with copic markers (both from Wendy at Stamps and Memories), and everything is liberally shimmered with Glimmer Mist from Jill at The Hobby House, who also provided the little pearls and gems, and the punch for the leaves.  I love the "Springtime" designer papers from Crafty Individuals, which I ordered online.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog, and so that I know that you have stopped by, please leave a comment below.

xx Jill

Willow reading recipes

A birthday card for a dear friend, Sue, who loves cooking, and is really good at it too!  This is not a colour combination I would normally choose, but was set in a challenge, so I had to give it a go.

I just love this image from Whiff of Joy "Willow reading recipes" which I have coloured with copic markers from Wendy at Stamps and Memories.  The design paper is from my stash, and the sentiment is also WOJ, as are the little strawberries.  The flowers are a mix of Prima and Wild Orchid Crafts, which I have spritzed with Glimmer Mist from Jill at The Hobby House, and the little charm and chain are from Jill too: she has a fantastic selection, so pop along and have a look.  The coredinations plain cardstock is from a Maze of Memories, who have the most enormous range of 12 x12 cardstock: far more than you could imagine possible in plain colours, plus some patterned papers too.  The photo doesn't really show the gold glitter pen by Sakura (also from Wendy), but I assure you it's there, giving just a touch of glam!

Time to get on with another card now, as another close friend has a birthday tomorrow, so I'll post that as soon as I can.  xx Jill

Bev's wonderful blog candy

Bev's wonderful blog candy:

join in the fun, and see the super-talented Bev's cards too!

Birthday card

This Whiff of Joy stamp has to be one of my all-time favourites: "Willow Dressing Up", which I've coloured with copic markers.  The birthday card is for our step-granddaughter, Natalie, who was 25 a couple of days ago.  It hardly seems possible that all those years have gone by, and that her little boy Maxwell is now two and a half.

I used a printed and foiled heavy cardstock from Kanban for the background, and used gold cardstock for the borders and leaves, which were cut with an MS punch from Wendy at Stamps and Memories who also supplied the gold Sakura glitter pen  on the shoes and bangle (yes I know they look lime green in the picture, you'll just have to trust me that they really are glittery gold!!)  The punched flower border is cut from coredinations cardstock with an EK border punch from Oyster stamps, and the flowers are from Wild Orchid crafts.  The flowers are heavily shimmered with glimmer mist from Jill at the Hobby House, and the self-adhesive gems are also from there.  They do a fantastic selection of different coloured rhinestones and pearls, and they're extremely reasonably priced (£10 for ten packs).  Their charm selection is also very good.

Thank you so much for coming to visit my blog and for any comments you'd like to leave.

xx Jill

2nd Anniversary candy at Jacqui's blog

Jacqui is offering some lovely candy for the 2nd Anniversary of her blog, so pop over and see her beautiful inspiring cards.  xx Jill

Lili of the Valley

There is some great blog candy for followers of lili of the valley thursday challenge, so please pop over and see the lovely new releases to order from June 1st, and your chance to win a full set!

xx Jill

Emma the mermaid

This cute stamp "mermaid Emma" is from CC designs at Quixotic Paperie, and is coloured with copic markers from Wendy at Stamps and Memories.  This is a birthday card for my grand-daughter's best friend, Willow, who has red hair and loves anything to do with mermaids!

I created the background paper and insert from a digi-download from Kay Miller designs called "ocean adventure", which has lots of lovely sea creatures and several dps. 

I also used coredinations cardstock in pink and blue, from A Maze of Memories and Stickles glitter glue, "waterfall", which is a pretty blue-green from Hobbycraft.  The sentiment is computer generated, but coloured with copics, and the pearls are from Jill at The Hobby House, who also supplied the Nellie Snellen branch punch.

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

congratulations card for my daughter

I used the A Gem of a Challenge inspiration picture and the  LOTV challenge sketch to make this card.

Just love the pink, green and burgundy colour combo for the Pink Gem Designs challenge this month - it's really one of my favourites. The sketch, which is just a beautiful layout, is by the ultra talented Bev, for the Lili of the Valley.

The image is by Magnolia of course, from Craftsulove and I really love this little cutie: she's coloured with copic markers from Wendy at Stamps and Memories, who also supplied the nesties.  The paper is Papermania Henbury Lane, which has to be one of my new favourites, with coredination cardstock from A Maze of Memories, who have the most enormous selection of plain cardstock ever!  The little sentiment, the larger flowers, ribbon, gems and leaves are from Hobbycraft, with the little roses from Wild Orchid Crafts, with stardust Stickles providing the glitter.

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

A birthday card for our beautiful grand-daughter, Beth, who is nine, and has recently begun riding lessons, which she simply loves.  She is a very gentle, loving child, with a serene nature, and her instructor often compliments her on her skill in keeping the ponies calm and obedient.  She started cantering in the last couple of weeks, and is a very happy little bunny!

I used this very sweet stamp from LOTV "Me and my Pony", which I coloured with copic markers, from Wendy at Stamps and Memories.  I'm not at all skilled with painting hair, so colouring the horse was a bit of a nightmare!  In my efforts not to let it merge into the wooden door behind, the outlines of the horse are a bit too dark, and not well-blended.  Oh well, you live and learn!

The dps are Basic Grey from the Porcelain pad, which is one of my old favourites from Jill at the Hobby House.  The flowers are a mix of ancient Prima (now sadly almost gone in this colour), and Wild Orchid crafts gorgeous roses, and the leaves are stamped out from Bazzill dotty cardstock with an MS punch.  The little sentiment is from Forever Friends, and of course bling is supplied as always by stardust Stickles, and a few rhinestones also from Jill.

Thank you very much for looking, and for any comments you might like to leave.  xx Jill

the last two

These are the last two thank yous for the guys who helped at the show, and I'm very glad they're all finished, as I found it hard to find some extra inspiration, so finding these new papers really helped.  Again I've tried to keep a similar look to them both.

For both cards the dps, fancy die-cuts and ribbons are from the Persimmon range by Papermania, which have quite a masculine look to them.  The hexagon die cuts are nesties, and the stars are punches from Hobbycraft, all with a little bling (courtesy of Stardust stickles of course)!