5th birthday card for Tristan

 

Just recently it was Tristan's fifth birthday.  Everyone has a soft spot for Tristan as he's a lively little soul with a great passion for life.  When he was little he used to take himself off to the naughty step without being told.  If my daughter said "Tristan, have you been naughty?" he'd reply "yes", and tell you just what he'd done!

He is obsessed with Moshi Monsters, so it was an obvious choice for his birthday card.  These extraordinary creatures, which are collected and swapped, are apparently very popular with children of this age.  It was a very simple card, and won't win prizes for the degree of difficulty involved, but he liked it very much, so that's all that matters!  He explained all about them in far more detail than I wanted to know, and named all the ones he had, as well as the ones he still wanted.  A very riveting conversation: it's such fun being a Nana!!  

I found the images on the net, for the card front and the insert.  I printed them out and decoupaged them; the sentiment is computer generated and the green background paper is from my stash.  Matting card is Bazill from A Maze of Memories, which is a craft shop carrying the widest range of plain-coloured 12 x 12 card I've ever seen.  They're off Junction 7 of the M40 and if I'm up that way, I usually make the trip to Long Crendon (although they're closed on Tuesdays).

Thank you so much for coming to read my blog.  It's always lovely to have visitors, and if you wish to leave a comment I'd love to come and visit your blog too!

xx Jill

Daughter's 7th Wedding Anniversary

Whew!! The show is all over and we can get back to normal at last.  It only occurred to me when I was half-way through the Georgian dresses that it was like making up the bodices of twelve wedding dresses in just over three weeks: total madness!!  I'll ask Bruce for a copy of the photo he took and let you have a look.  They all looked gorgeous and danced beautifully, and all in all it was a very successful show with lots of excellent comments from the audience.

I made this card for our youngest daughter Louise, and her husband Bruce, for their 7th wedding anniversary last month.

It's a decoupage sheet I bought in a lovely garden centre just off the M6 near Carlisle, when we travelled up to Scotland and stopped for a cup of tea.  There was a craft shop there too (bonus!!), and they had some pretty white silk flower stems which I butchered and coloured with copic markers for various projects and which now, sadly, are all gone.  I might just have to stop there again when we go up at the end of the month, just in case they may have some more!!

The pyramage and the background paper and sentiment all came on the same sheet, which was very handy, so after the cutting out, I only had to add background card in red and green and colour the flowers and punched leaves with copic markers.  I love the sweet cuddly bears, and although the colour combo seemed quite Christmassy at first, I think it grew on me!

Thanks very much for visiting my blog and for any comments you wish to leave: I really appreciate you stopping by.

xx Jill

A Birthday Pint bookmark card

Hi everyone!

I just flew back from the Algarve in Portugal yesterday, so I'm really suffering from withdrawal symptoms in the cold and pouring rain. Yuk!!   I'm not looking forward to venturing out to the shops before I go to work this afternoon - MUCH TOO COLD - but we have no food in the house, so needs must!!

I didn't have time to show you my Easter cards, so I'll pop those onto my blog over the next few days.  I did squeeze in a couple of birthday cards before going away too, so I'll post the rest of those next month.

This bookmark card was made for our son-in-law, Garry the Greengrocer, (or as he likes to say - a Purveyor of high class fruit and vegetables to the Restaurant Trade!).  It is a craftsUprint download designed by Robyn Cockburn. These cUp downloads are particularly useful for male cards, and although they are intended for beginners, I've found that they're quite tricky to match up, so require a bit of experience.

I printed the design out onto quite stiff glossy photo paper, folded and decoupaged some elements and then glued it all together with red dst, which is the only tape that holds photo card really well.  I also printed a sentiment and greeting out onto the back of the largest folded piece, before printing and cutting.  I always ink up the edges with copic markers too, so there's no white edges showing.  The two sides of the bookmark were simply glued together, with ribbon threaded through the punched hole at the top, and popped inside the little pocket.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and for the lovely comments you leave, which I really appreciate.  If I have time, I like to visit my commenters' blogs in return, so that I can keep up with all the lovely projects that are going on in Blogland.

xx Jill

Confirmation card

EDIT: I was really thrilled to win a top three spot for this card, with Stamping Sisters in Christ, which is one of my favourite sites.  Well done Beth, for choosing the colour-scheme and layout!























This was made for a close friend of my grand-daughter, who was confirmed yesterday.  She chose the colours herself and the layout, and I followed the instructions!

She chose the First Edition papers "Hideaway", which are very heavily glittered, and Papermania capsule collection lemon ribbon and bow.  What a joy it is to see all the Spring flowers just coming out, so it was only natural for her to pick out the Hobbycraft silk daffodils and WOC small daffodils and roses which I glitzed up with Glimmer Mist.

The beautiful cream lace is also from WOC.   There is also some stardust Stickles around the edges of the image and horizontal strips.  I do love my glitter glue!! The image was downloaded from Magic Moonlight, who have some beautiful vintage images.



The silver cross was die cut with a two Sizzix dies, which I've found very useful over the years for Easter, sympathy, First Communion, Baptism etc, and I hope to find the new Sizzix crosses when I go up to the NEC show on Thursday.  I layered one over the other to give a bit of dimension, and created the sentiment on my pc.  The ferny leaves are my favourite MS punch on cream pearl paper which I coloured with my copic markers.  I used copics on some of the flowers and all the edges too, just to tie in the colours.  Not that I'm OCD (well not much!) but I do like everything to match up nicely.

I also made Beth's friend a pretty pearl and crystal bracelet with a lovely rhinestone cross charm bought at a a recent bead exhibition, which she was very pleased with.  I usually remember to take photos of the cards and forget about the jewellery pictures, so once again there's no photo, which was a bit silly!

I'm planning to enter the following challenges with this card:
http://crafterscafeblogchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - ribbon and lace
http://panpasteluk.blogspot.co.uk/ - add a flower
http://stampinsistersinchrist.blogspot.co.uk/ - new season
http://craftuscrazy.blogspot.co.uk/ - religious/Easter or something sweet
http://craftingforallseasons.blogspot.co.uk/ - green and yellow
http://divasbydesignchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - citrus colours

Thanks so much for coming to visit my blog.  It's a real pleasure for me to come and see your blogs and admire what you've all been doing, so please leave me a comment so that I know where to visit in return.

xx Jill

birthday card for Tracy

A birthday card for our dear daughter-in-law to be, Tracy.  It is a cUp decoupage print (designer Sandie Burchell).  This was very simple to do, with reasonably easy cutting, and was layered with shallow foam pads, so that it didn't stick up too high.  This is a style I'm currently favouring, with more layers, but less height (1mm pads).  It's mounted onto core'dinations background card and glittered with stardust glitter glue.

Just a short post today, as I'm up to my eyes in Easter cards, and a confirmation card and bracelet.  Not to mention the 12 Georgian petticoats for the show in a few weeks - no rest for the wicked!  Off to see Top Hat tonight at Woking, with Tom Chambers and Summer Strallan, as one of our ex-pupils is dancing in the male chorus.  It goes to the West End in May, and everyone who's seen it says it's brilliant, so really looking forward to this.

Thanks very much for visiting my blog.  I really appreciate all the comments you leave, and hope to visit your blogs too in the next couple of days.

xx Jill

Thank you card "La Sylphide"

This was made as a thank you card for the adjudicator of our recent Royal Berkshire Dance Festival.  She was an excellent judge, giving really clear helpful advice to the students, and creating a really positive atmosphere, which was great.  

The image is a digi doodle from Scrapbook Stamp Society and is called "La Sylphide" by Mitzi Sato-Wiuff, which I chose as it is quite an authentic version of a ballerina.  I coloured the image, most of the flowers, the leaves and the sentiment with copic markers in a Springtime palette of colours.  I used a copic shadow around the image in R00 to indicate the warmth of stage lighting, but I think another time, I would chose a different colour, maybe in the C or T family of grey colours.  It was tricky to choose something appropriate because even the green has a warmth to it (YGs).

It took quite a while to colour, as it was quite difficult to match up the colours of the bps, even with a large selection of copic colours. I did some tip-to-tip blending , and some feathering on the dress and wings (which, thanks to classes with Wendy at Stamps and Memories, I can now do!) so I'm beginning to feel more at home with some of the more ambitious techniques.

The yummy papers are Prima from the Romantique pad, which I chose for their Spring-like feel, and I can tell you I really didn't want to cut these little beauties up!  The papers on the bar across the base are also from the same pad, and the plain core'dinations card is a sort of salmon pink.  The flowers are mainly Prima, with a few verbena flowers from Hobbycraft, and roses and small flowers from WOC, where I also bought the ivory lace.  There's a bit of Stardust glitter glue on her dress and wings, and around the oval, with Glimmer Mist on the flowers, and a few tiny crystal gems here and there.  Can't remember where the sentiment stamp comes from, but the die-cuts are Nesties and the leaf punch is from Martha Stewart.

I've decided to enter quite a few challenges with this card, as it's been some time since I've done any of these, due to my poor health.  It's come out as quite a selection though, as the card fits with both "wings" and Green or Spring colours, and thanks to Feline Playful - there's a long list of these!

They are: 

http://craftsandmechallenges.blogspot.com -  things with wings

http://digistamps4joy.blogspot.com  - mainly green

http://flutterbywednesdays.blogspot.com  - things with wings + Spring

http://mymumscraftshopchallenges.blogspot.com - Spring colours

http://www.whimsical-designs.com - Going green

http://deepoceanchallengeblog.blogspot.com - Spring

http://totallystampalicious.blogspot.com - Spring is in the Air

http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.com - Spread Your Wings

http://ceschallenges.blogspot.com - Flower Frenzy

http://cardmakinmamas.blogspot.com - Let's see some Green

http://ccmonthlychallenge.blogspot.com - Spring

http://cupcakecraftroom.blogspot.com - Spring Bouquet

http://sparklesforumchallenges.blogspot.com - Things with Wings

Such a long post from me today, with plenty of pictures - how nice to have a sunny day to take these!  Thank you so much for coming to visit my blog, and for any comments you would like to leave.  I'm still visiting the blogs of those who left comments on my last project, and it's lovely to see what wonderful crafting is being done by everyone.  Best wishes to you all!

xx Jill

Connor's 12th birthday

Our gorgeous grandson, Connor was 12 this week, which is unbelievable.  He's as tall as I am and loving his new secondary school.  Like most boys of his age, he can recount most of the facts about the Harry Potter books and films.  He can give you reams and reams of the most extraordinary memorised facts about all the characters and creatures to a highly boring degree!

This card is from another craftsUprint decoupage design by Valerie Dawes called "Wizard School", and so was a very obvious choice for his card.  It is an easel design with two extra slots for the owl and bookcase, and needed a couple of hours cutting out, and colouring the edges with copic markers to avoid the white marks.  I was able to put it into an A4 envelope, but had to show him how to set it up.  It also needed a couple of pieces of dst behind, to make the decoupage stand up in the slots, which also had to be explained.  This might not make it suitable to send off by post without detailed instructions, but is fine if it's going to be handed over in person.  It looks great once it's made though, and caused several exclamations of "wow": so very many thanks to the cUp designer.

Thank you for visiting my blog: I really appreciate all the lovely comments you leave.  It certainly helps knowing that someone is reading about my cards!  I hope to come and visit your blogs too.

xx Jill

50th birthday card

This card was made for a friend's 50th birthday, and is a download from Craftsuprint, but I don't recall who was the designer, and it's not printed on the sheet.  There was a lot of cutting out to do for the decoupage, which took some time, and I also punched out some gold grape leaves, and made a bunch of grapes from some burgundy coloured beads and wire.

I altered the base of the card slightly and put a strip of card across to take the grapes and leaves (the grapes were very hard to stick on and I resorted to sticky pads and red tape!), and I also added a couple of extra layers of decoupage.  It was quite a time-consuming card, but the recipient was delighted with it, (and his wife and daughters) so that made it all worthwhile.  I also made a box for this card, as it was quite bulky, particularly with the beaded grapes!


Thank you very much for visiting my blog, and special thanks to those visitors who leave such lovely comments.  It's always nice to know when I'm blogging that I'm not just talking to myself!!  It also means I can come and see everyone's blogs, which I always enjoy.  xx Jill

75th birthday card for "Grandad seaside"

My daughter's father-in-law, "Grandad seaside" was 75 on Sunday, so I decided on a decoupage card from Craftsuprint, designed by Sandie Burchell.  This kit is beautifully designed, and comes with various numbers for special birthdays, and sentiments for other occasions.




















These cards are quite complex to make, with lots of cutting and folding, but the resulting card is all you could hope for.  This one comes out at about 8" x 8", and stands up on a triangular base, with slots at the top, but it folds flat for posting, which is really helpful.

The reverse of the card is quite similar (not shown, because I forgot to take the picture!) but has the sentiment in the panel on the back, instead of the books and birthday message.  I printed all the decoupage pieces onto heavyweight glossy photo paper, and then coloured all the edges of the decoupage with brown and beige copic markers before I started to assemble this.  If anyone is going to do something similar, I suggest leaving the printed photo pages to dry really well before starting to cut them out, as I made the mistake of being too eager, resulting in having to print one page again.  I'd put in a new printer cartridge to get a really fresh colour print, and didn't realise that it was still quite tacky.  I won't be doing that again!

Thanks very much for visiting my blog.  If you are able to leave a comment this is much appreciated, and then I'll know you came, and I hope I can come and visit your blog too. 

xx Jill B 

Roberta's birthday card

Although I made this card on holiday in the Summer, it hadn't been sent, so when it was one of my colleagues birthdays last week, I thought it would be just right for her.  She was running one of the Royal Academy of Dance's new Grades course this year in London and was a really good tutor, so I hope it's boosted her confidence, and made her realise that she's got real potential.

Very much out of my usual style, I used lots of old stash which was too pretty to give away in the RAK bag I usually reserve for Beth, my eldest grand-daughter, or her best friend's mum, Nic, who is a fantastic crafter, and makes "summat outa nowt" with great style. 

A cream card-blank, Docrafts transparent stickers, gold peeloffs, rainbow papers from Craftwork cards, and paper flowers, a few gems, with some gold punched leaves I've had forever, and the job was done!  I felt  very virtuous using up my bits and pieces, and plan to do this again when the mood strikes, rather than constantly being seduced by new papers and punches.  I've just seen the new Nellie rose punches though, which I might just have to buy as they will come in amazingly handy!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog.  Please let me know if you stopped by so that I can return the compliment.  JTLYK my followers pics are gone again, after only one day of being around, so I'm quite sad again.  Why doesn't Mr Blogger play nicely?

xx Jill

grand-daughter's 7th birthday

Our gorgeous grand-daughter, Charlotte is seven tomorrow, so I made an easel card showing the Matryoshka dolls I love.

These little Kanban diecuts are very cute, and didn't need much attention other than some Stickles glitter glue and a few red rhinestones left over from Christmas (holly berries!).  I prefer the "waterfall" colour of stickles glue with a pale blue, green or tuquoise background, as it is quite subtle and transparent, so very suitable for pastels.

The little blue and red flowers, the heart and the sentiment also were die-cut on the sheet, so all that was need was some background paper (Provocraft) and some red pearlised card, also left from the festive season.  Some more stickles around the edges, a few more gems and a red bow, and this very simple card was complete.  Just take a look at all that space without silk or paper flowers - perhaps I need a lie down!  Still I know it doesn't count as LIM (less is more) though, as I couldn't abandon the bps and the flowers completely.

Thanks you very much for visiting my blog.  I really appreciate any comments you leave, and will come to visit your blog too.  I'll be out of action for a short while, as I am due for my surgery on Tuesday, and then have to take it easy for several weeks, so hopefully I'll have a bit more time for blog-hopping during the enforced rest.  Happy New Year to you all.

xx Jill

final Christmas bookatrix

 

I'm typing this with some difficulty, as I managed to slice the side of my right thumb on Boxing Day, grating carrots.  Not a good start to a family meal.  It's still pretty sore, so I'm making lots of typos when I should be hitting the space bar!

This was the last of the commissioned Bookatrix cards that I had to make for Christmas, and is the simplest of the set.  It's a robin cut from an old Christmas card, a couple of flowers, a voile ribbon and a few peel-offs.  What could be simpler?  Mind you, it still takes nearly a couple of hours to cut out all the layers, assemble them, add the embellishments and make the box.  I've done so many of these that it should be getting easier, but it's still fairly time-consuming.  Again, I've backed this with a folding card, so that a greeting can go inside.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog.  I hope you all had a very happy Christmas, and my best wishes for a great New Year!  Please leave me a comment so that I know you came, and I'll come and visit you too, so that I can keep up with all the lovely projects you produce.

xx Jill

Christmas bookatrix no 1

A bookatrix Christmas card commissioned for an elderly couple.  It had to be red and gold, so I used stardream white cardstock, and a bright red mirri card, which has a lovely sheen, rather than a shine (expensive too!)  I dug out the peeloffs from hibernation to create the edgings and the sentiment.  I also made a box for this, and decorated it to match the card.  The silk poinsettia is from Prima, many years ago, the gold flowers and ribbon are from my stash, and the roses, rose buds and chandelier beads are WOC as usual.

I attached the whole bookatrix to an opening card, cut to fit, so that the sentiment could go inside.  I find my customers prefer this to a little stand.  Not sure why bookatrix cards are still very popular, but I have another four to finish, (all are nearly complete, thank goodness) and only a week to go!  I have sent some bought cards this year though, as my back operations haven't allowed me to get on as quickly as I'd hoped. 

Thank you so much for popping by to see my blog - all comments are very much appreciated, and I promise I'll stop by to see what you've been crafting this week - I love a good nosey!

xx Jill

vintage birthday card

I'm very fond of vintage images, and this one is from the Marianne sheet of vintage ladies.  I made this easel card for one of my oldest friends, Valerie, who is still teaching dancing.  Michael is still Dance Captain in Billy Elliott in the West End, some six years on, and remains busy with his young baby and Saturday stage school: not quite sure when he fits in some sleep! 

I bought and dived into the new First Edition papers "Isabelle" on the day I bought them.  Not only do they have a pretty shabby chic look to them, but are also heavily glittered.  The colour-scheme is soft, and in ice-cream colours of mint, coffee and pale peach.   What more can a girl want in 6x6 papers?  

Well obviously a bit more stickle glitter around the edges of the paper, a sliced up doiley (I betcha can't see the join!), some very pretty organza lace (ancient, from my stash), a few WOC roses, Petaloo and bridal flowers coloured with copics, some die-cut swirls, a punched out MS heart and a few pearls!






















 I can't do justice to the real colours in the winter light (or lack of it),  but grab a pack and come drool with me - these babies are gorgeous!  Normally I would sit and stroke these for a few weeks before butchering them, but I was very brave, and galloped straight in.  I really can't do Less is More though.  I have tried to keep it fairly simple in layout and let the paper speak for itself, so it's maybe not as busy in style as it might be.

Thanks very much for coming to visit my blog this week.  I'm having a quiet week next week, as part two of my back operation is coming this Friday, so I'll have to take things a bit easier.  More time to come and visit everyone's blogs I hope ......  If you join as a follower please let me know, as I've lost all my followers pictures again.  I got very excited a few weeks ago when they all came back, but it was only for a day, and then they went again.  So sad!

xx Jill

three men's birthday cards

Thank you so much to those people who sent cards and good will messages following my back operation last Friday.  It will still be some weeks before I know if it's been a success or not, and there's still part two to come at the beginning of December when they de-nerve the other side of my back.  As it was over an hour of needles, electric currents and extreme discomfort, I can't say I'm looking forward to it.  The upside was that because we have a back-pain GP unit at the Dunedin independent hospital locally, I had five-star treatment and a private room with en-suite bathroom!!  Lunch was a prawn marie-rose salad, with a lovely strawberry tart and cream, and a cafetiere of decaff, which was some consolation for the unpleasantness of the operation.

I always have lots of birthday cards to make at this time of the year with several of them masculine cards, which I find quite challenging.  These La Pashe vintage style cards are always popular though, and I even quite enjoy sitting, cutting out the decoupage bits: it makes the boring programmes on tv a bit more bearable.  Why is it that with hundreds more channels, we still can't find anything decent to watch?  It's a mystery!
 





















 These "flipping cards are good fun too, with the reversed image on the inside, and all that's needed is a suitable insert.  The guys all seem to like them, and is solves the perennial problem of what to choose.






















Thanks very much for visiting my blog and for any comments you'd like to leave.  I really do appreciate this, and like to come and visit your blog too.  xx Jill

Natasha is two!

Our youngest grand-daughter, Natasha, was two this week, and she has a shoe and bag fetish!!  It really doesn't matter who owns the shoes or slippers - Mummy, Daddy or her brothers - she loves to try them on, and walk around the house in them.  So, of course, this image from Mo Manning, which I coloured with copic markers, was an absolute must.   We bought her a Peppa Pig pram as she is truly obsessed, and it was very funny to see her walking her baby in the pram, carrying her Peppa bag, and wearing her Dad's boots!  Her obsession with the little pink porker is monumental, and early one morning as her mum picked her up out of her cot, instead of her first words being "Hiya Mummy" as normal, she simply shouted "PIG!!"  Looking at all her Peppa birthday presents though, I think she may have been suffering from pig overload!  Even her cake had Peppa Pig on it, which she was very excited about.

The papers and the decoupaged floral spray are Kay Miller, and the pretty lace and roses are WOC.  There are a few tiny gems on the flowers, and the circular sentiment was computer generated, and then cut out with Nesties.  The inside of the card is decorated to match the outside.

Thanks very much for coming to visit my blog.  It's lovely to hear from you all, and I really appreciate the lovely comments you leave.

xx Jill

Bookatrix wedding card

The Bookatrix cards always seem to be the most popular commissioned cards for weddings, and I've now done dozens!  It's quite difficult to change the designs whilst keeping the format the same, although this time I was helped by the fact that the bride wanted daisies as her theme.

The background card is white stardust, with the middle layer (and the top layer of the bookmark) being a glittered fabric, which is a bit like a stiff, dry wet-wipe.  When fabric is so beautiful I do get the jitters before I have to cut into it!  Gold mirri card is used for the central mats, and gold peeloffs for the corners and borders.  How weird it feels to use peeloffs in today's crafting - seven or eight years ago they were all the rage, and I've got hundreds of the damned things!  Any (polite) suggestions as to what to do with them would be very welcome.  I can't even give them away nowadays!

The daisies are punched, except for the ones on the box, which I found lurking at the bottom of my flower stash.  The centres are yellow flowersoft, and the small leaves are also punched from pearlescent paper which I coloured with copic markers.  Now, come on!! You didn't really think I was going to abandon the copics altogether did you?  The larger leaves are die-cut from a Marianne die, I think.  I find it quite hard to make up a central flower motif from scratch, but have much less problem with a corner motif.  Strange eh?

Thanks very much for coming to visit my blog and for all the lovely comments you leave - it's very much appreciated.  I hope to get round to visit you all to see what you've been up to, and if you leave me a comment, then I'll know you came to visit.

xx Jill

Joshua's birthday card

Our beautiful youngest grandson Joshua was one year old this week.  I found this digi stamp by Mo Manning called "Tolerance", which I coloured with copic markers, although I'm still not happy with the hair colouring, and need lots more practice.  My son's family have a ginger cat called "Dizzy" (for obvious reasons), so of course, I had to go with that colourscheme.  The papers are from Nitwit "Some Assembly Required", and these are very useful generally for male projects.  It's quite a simple layout, so I just used some card candy, and a computer generated sentiment to complete the card.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
http://foreverfriendschallengeblog.blogspot.com/: use an animal and a sentiment
http://www.southerngirlschallenge.blogspot.com/: one for the boys
http://cardsformen.blogspot.com/: make us laugh
http://craftybootschallenges.blogspot.com/: use an animal

Thank you so much for visiting my blog, and viewing my card.  If  you leave me a comment I'll know you dropped by, and I can pop by your blog too, and see what lovely projects you've posted in blogland.

xx Jill

another "back to school" card

This card was for our eldest grandson Connor, who is eleven, and has just started his new school at Waingels College. He looks so grown up in his new uniform, especially as he's almost as tall as me now! He loves the new school, and all the classes and activities, and it seems to suit him much better than Primary School, as he's got loads of housepoints already. Even the homework's getting done without too much moaning, and it gives him time to go on his beloved Wii games!

The image is from LOTV and is coloured with copic markers, and the cardstock is coredinations.  The graphic images are downloaded, and the stars are punched out.  This counts as a quick and easy card for me as it only took about an hour, instead of the three hours I usually take, faffing and fiddling!

Thank you very much for coming to visit - I really appreciate the coments you leave, and I promise I'll pop around to your blog too.
 
xx Jill

vintage image for birthday card

This is another Kanban decoupage image which I found at the Ally Pally show last weekend.  (Bit of a bargain as I bought four Christmassy ones and got two Deco-style free).  I bought some of the new Christmas papers: Authentique and MME, which I'd like to sit and stroke for a little while before I have to cut into them, and have palpitations. 

I'm very fond of turqoise backgrounds and this decoupage came with matching background paper.  As this was teamed with teal and apricot on the image, I decided I quite liked this colour combination, although it's not one I would choose normally.  This card is for Carol's birthday (Bruce's mum) which was yesterday.   Carol is known to our grandchildren as Nanny Seaside, and she's a lovely, warm person,  known for her practicality and common sense.  (Guess what? She lives near the sea!)

I had to add some flowers of course:  you know me, I can't do CAS.  I start off with good intentions, but what looks elegant and minimal on other people's work, just looks sparse and boring on mine.  Don't know the answer to this conundrum!

The open flowers and leaves are from a Marianne die I bought recently from Oyster stamps, and the sentiment is computer generated.  The cardstock is pearlised, which I used to use a lot, but I tend now to use plain coredinations.  The roses are WOC (smothered in glimmer mist), which I altered slightly with my copic markers, and the organza ones are the last of my Prima stash in that colour.  I will really cry when they are all gone: I have quite a few of the flat flowers left in most colours, but only a couple of purple and green ones left in the organza, and then they're all gone.  I'm going to try cutting some out from organza fabric with a soldering iron, and see how that works, as the only place I've found that still sells these readymade, is in the States, and the postage costs are prohibitive (I was quoted about £30:  aaaargh!!!).  I always use copics to edge my leaves and card-stock too, and although you can't see it, I know when I haven't done it, as the edges show white.

I'll be entering the following challenges:
http://audsentimentschallengeblog.blogspot.com/ - birthday card
http://paper-craftingjourney.blogspot.com/ - die-cuts and punches
http://inkyimpressionschallenges.blogspot.com/ die cuts or punches
http://deepoceanchallengeblog.blogspot.com/ - happy birthday
http://diecuttindivas.blogspot.com/ - vintage

Thanks a lot for stopping by to visit my blog.  It's a real pleasure to know you've come, so please post a comment below, and I'll come to visit your blog too.  Mr Blogger still isn't showing my followers, so thank you so much if you are one - I just won't know about it - so sad!!  Off to copic class tonight with the lovely Wendy from Stamps and Memories - a whole evening of playing with markers - what fun!!

xx Jill