male birthday easel card

How impossible is it to get decent photos in this weather?  I need to set up some sort of lightbox I think, rather than trying to get a smidgen of daylight through the skylight in the office, as the colours are entirely wrong, and are much more muted irl.  Hopeless!!

This card was for my husband's best buddy Tony, and uses a La Pashe "Remember When" decoupage image of an old garage.  I decided on a easel card as the main image is so busy, so I thought it needed a bit of calming down.  I put some stone card from Kanban behind it. but I really think it needed some sort of floor level to stand the mechanics on as they're floating a bit!!  The little tools are brads, and the border punch is from EK.  Plain cardstock is pearl card from Hobbycraft.

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

Golden Wedding Anniversary

I hope that this will be the last of the Bookatrix cards for some time to come, as I've now run out of inspiration with these.  I know everyone always loves them, but it's not easy to keep coming up with a new version each time. 

This particular one is for my daughter's in-laws, Bob and Carol, who are celebrating their golden wedding anniversary on Friday.  Louise is very lucky to have such a lovely couple as in-laws, and they are fantastic grand-parents, driving up from Dorset to look after the little ones when needed.  It didn't happen in my day!!

The gold and cream cardstock are from A Touch of Craft (at the Ally Pally exhibition in September) and the little flowers are from WOC, with the  bead sprays from Hobbycraft.  The heart die is one from cuttlebug and is my absolute favourite: I use it nearly all the time; and there are the usual peeloff corners and borders and names from Art of Craft.  Many thanks to dear Janey on the Imag-e-nation forum for the lovely anniversary verse.

Thanks so much for visting my blog and for any comments you wish to leave.

xx Jill

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