Champion Trophy Card

Well what a cracking weekend of sunshine we had although the hay-fever season has arrived too and I'm having to dose up everyday so far ..... it keeps the symptoms at bay but slows me down a bit too :0(

Last week I never did get round to making my second entry for children's cards at  Less is More although I had made a start so I was so pleased I could just adapt the idea and make a trophy card for this weeks challenge which is for a shaped card... not a square or rectangle.

This type of card was part of an online card class I took recently which showed us how to make several different styles of interactive cards...... right up my street :0) ...... however I do already have a plastic template for a trophy card by 'Get in Shape Templates' and I used it for this card.

They fold down flat to go inside an envelope and I asked my able assistant Hannah with her lovely hands and nails (unlike mine!!) to demonstrate whilst I took some piccies...... just in case you've not come across a trophy card before :0)

the flat card, as it arrives in an envelope.

As you pull the ribbon tab the base slides down and starts to take shape

revealing the message too :0)

Side shot to show you how the mechanism works

The width of the slot will determine how much dimension you can use... the racing car is cut from thin card and stuck directly onto the stamped flags and the slot in the base is between 1 & 2 mm wide. 

If you make the slot too big the tag will have a tendency to fall forward or backwards!!

I made mine from a sheet of A4 card...  cut it in half lengthways at 11.5cm then scored across the short side at 3, 7.5, 10.5, 15, 19.5, 22.5, 27cm.

You need to make a slot in the 15cm score line but remember not to go all the way to the edge, the length will depend on the width of the rising tag, mine is 9.5cm wide.

The tag is13.5cm high but can be as tall as you want remembering that it needs to protrude a little when flattened but not too much that it will not fit in the envelope!! 

Remember not to decorate the bottom section of the tag that remains inside the platform!

I hope these instructions made sense, any queries just send me an email and I'll try and help

All that remains now is to see if Chrissie and Mandi still consider this to be CAS enough for the challenge...ooops *smack wrist*...Sorry :0)

Thanks for stopping by...must dash, no rest for the wicked :0) Lol

Jenny x

Stamps : Racing Cars by Woodware
Embossing : Trendy embossabilities folder by Spell-binders

A shining light

Morning crafty peeps :0).....Its the weekend and the weather is going to be hot and sunny so hopefully you've found your factor 50 by now and put the woolly hat and gloves away for a good few months...there, that'll bring about a change this week!!!

My share today over at Make the Day Special blog is an encouragement card for my super talented girl Hannah who has started her A levels this week along with many other 17/18 yr olds. Not that she needs a lot of encouragement because she's very disciplined at getting her study time in and has a brain like a sponge to soak up all the facts and figures she needs to know but it's just great to let her know we care and think she's amazing :0)

This is the first time I've inked up the lighbulb from this set and because it's a solid image, I decided I would emboss it with clear powder for a bkgd pattern and then again on yellow card and use the emboss resist technique to ink the surround in black.
I love the shine with the embossed images and it also means I can have a yellow bulb on black card!!! ...... you'd never get that with yellow embossing powder on dark card :0)

The sentiment from Lunar lights fitted perfectly and then inside I carried on the sentiment with a Lawn Fawn alphabet...

All that embossing on the front means it will fit nicely in at the Lawnscaping challenge this week too...... it's almost like I planned it *wink*

Next week will we be Hannah's final week at school apart from going in to sit exams and collecting results in August, I can't believe that era has come to an end! She hopes to go to Bath University and study Psychology in the autumn rather than take a year out, but she has a couple of overseas trips planned for the summer including an adventure to New Zealand on her own to visit family and friends..... and what an adventure that will be considering France is the furthest she's been!!

I have a feeling this summer will be a busy one :0)

Thanks for dropping by and I hope you have a lovely sunny weekend!

Jenny x

CFC#54- Man, Its Casual Friday!!

It's time again for a new challenge over at CASual Fridays and with Fathers day approaching, this week we want to see your cards for the men in your life....

Our fab sponsor is Gina K Designs who have just released a new collection of papers called CASual Fridays... what a great name!!!
The Girl Fridays have each been given a paper pack to play with, they are a set of lovely faux textures and patterns, just ideal for making cards for guys so....

we want to see your masculine cards using Designer paper.

I decided to use one of the plaids in the pack to make a comfy pair of slippers...in fact I'm pretty sure my dad had a pair like them!!

eeek....... I just love to make objects in miniature from paper and card! Of course to go with a pair of slippers you need a newspaper so I used the Hero Arts Newsprint bkgd on some white tissue and folded it to make a newspaper and again for a background strip :0).

For the slippers I used thick chipboard to make a round ended rectangle which I used as a template for the top, sole and insole of the slipper, I cut the patterned piece a little larger so it could be shaped around the chipboard to give some dimension and then made them up pretty much the same as real slippers would be!!

So it's time to get crafty and join us in the gallery with your masculine cards, check out the awesome inspiration from the other Girl Fridays whilst you're there and the super prize from Gina K designs as well :0)

See you there!

Jenny x

Baby Gingham

Well what a glorious day it's been here.... almost ashamed to say I sat in my craft-room this morning making cards!!! The difference in yesterdays temperature to todays is amazing , I was wrapped up in a coat yesterday for our daily dog walk and today its was short sleeves all the way!

The cards I've been making today are for the Babies or Children's cards challenge at Less is More.
I've gone with the traditional gingham pattern as well as the usual blue and pink for boy and girl..... I was a bit rebellious when it came to dressing Hannah as a baby and steered clear of pink but for cards it seems somehow right!

As you can see I succumbed to the alphabet dies from PTI having seen so many gorgeous cards made with them, the font is just so versatile.
The gingham base card is a digi pattern from Pink Petticoat.... I really wanted to try my own printed base card so it would show through the letters, trouble is our printer is starting to play up....typical seeing as I've just recently decided to cancel the monthly cover payment on it... Grrr... but luckily these two sheets turned out okay after a few test runs on paper first.
The 'New Baby' sentiment is a stamp from a UK company I found at Ally Pally called Imagine That Papercrafts , they sell their own clear stamps and can be found here... I really like the combination of fonts in their stamp sets :0)

This is such a fun theme so I hope to be back with a couple of children's birthday cards.... being a big kid myself it shouldn't be too hard!!!

Thanks for looking

Jenny x

Photobooth Fun!!

Woo Hoo for weekends... a leisurely pace of life and best of all..... NOT having to make packed lunches at a ridiculous time of day!!

I've finally got around to making a card for the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge, they've mixed it up a bit with the challenges and this week is a sketch to follow as loosely or literally as you want :0) 

Being a Saturday I'm also sharing this card over on the Make the Day Special blog too.

I have to say that inking this little cheeky squirrel up again was like meeting up with an old friend... it's definitely been too long and now I have more Paper Smooches characters he can mix with, he'll have to come out and play again soon but for this card  he's been up to fun and games in a photo-booth !!

I made the photos with the square speech bubble from 'He Said She Said' and then masked off a smaller square to stamp and ink through so as to leave a white edge for the photo.
A pin-board seemed like the best bkgd for the photo display... I know I used to have one in my bedroom although the posters of 80's pop-stars seemed to still creep onto the walls instead of the pinboard!! Lol

.....right well I best pop over and get this entered in the gallery and wish you all a great weekend, I for one have no idea what we are doing but it usually revolves around Hannah's plans although study is the top of the list with her A levels starting next week!!

Thanks for stopping by :0)
Jenny x

Punches or Dies

I just love Fridays... it's nearly the weekend and a new challenge over at CASual Fridays... Yay!! ....and this week we are getting 'Punchy'......but with the flood of wonderful dies 

onto the craft market we are allowing you to use them too :0)

Our sponsor this week is one of my favourite stamp companies...Lawn Fawn, and the Girl Fridays have all been given a stamp set to play with but you can use any product on your cards as long as we can see those punched or die cut shapes or borders :0)

For my card I used Bon Voyage and Bannerific with the sentiment from Flying By...

as I said yesterday I seem to have a thing about skies and clouds at the moment, us Brits have an obsession with the weather!!! Lol

It was a pure chance that the banner fits perfectly across the shaped 

aperture, looks like it was meant to be :0)

Please go over to the CASual Fridays blog to see the Fawn-tastic prize this week and take in the creations from the rest of the Girl Fridays too, you wont be disappointed :0)

We look forward to seeing your projects in the gallery and don't forget to check out the Happy Hour post later to see last weeks winners :0)

Thanks for looking

Jenny x

Stamps : Bannerific, Bon Voyage, Flying By - Lawn Fawn

Dies : Clouds - MFT Dienamics , 

          Nestabilities Reverse Wonky Rectangle,

          Cloud Impression plate- Taylored Expressions

Sunshine Card and a Tutorial

I was about to say good morning but its already afternoon...time flies when your in your craft room!!!

I have a card to share for three challenges...yep I was quite impressed too, I love to combine them where I can :0)
I also have a tutorial for embossing nestabilitie frames onto card because a few of you have asked how I did it on this card but because I have a dire voice on video and not enough hands to video and demonstrate at the same time its a photo tutorial I'm afraid!

Back to my card though and I've used the colours from Dynamic Duos and included stitching for the challenge at Annabelle Stamps and circles for the challenge at Passion for Papertrey....STRIKE!!

I seem to have a bit of an obsession at the moment with the sun,clouds and sky in general but the colours at Dynamic Duos just seemed to fit this idea. 

I used a Cuttlebug die to make the sun and then hand stitched the rays around it. Not too easy to see but the blue card has been debossed with the PTI linen IP, then I die cut the bottom with a cloud border die, an idea I cased from JJ here... don't you just love JJ's card?

The top cloud is the positive version of the cloud die and I just popped it up on foam tape and stamped a PTI sentiment.

Here are the challenge graphics

Now for the tutorial and there are a few photos... I honestly thought I was one of the last to the party on this technique but I'm pleased to be able to share the sandwich stack I use in my Bigshot.

First of all I urge you to not force anything through your machines because this technique does pass easily through the Bigshot and I don't want to be responsible for broken machines. A number of factors have to be taken into account including how thick your card shims are and how worn your cutting plates are ...as you'll see mine are quite rough *shame*

This is the basic sandwich :

• Multipurpose platform with both tabs closed
• tan embossing mat (mine is about 1.5mm thick)
• your card with nestie taped to it with repositionable tape (I've used 300gsm card and washi tape because it doesn't mark and is easily removed) cutting side down.
• 2 x card shims (I use the grey card from the back of A4 refill pads so its thicker than cereal box card but not quite chipboard)
• 1 x Acrylic plate

.....so all stacked ready to go and this combo goes easily through the Bigshot, in fact it feels like it has done nothing!!..... I will add at this point your tan mat and cardboard shims should be bigger than your piece of card so as not to emboss extra lines onto your finished piece...this is most important if you are embossing straight onto the card front... I found that out the hard way!!

Voila!! the washi tape peels easily to reveal a subtle but visable frame. 

Now if you want more of an impression just add an extra shim which is exactly what I did only I hadn't got a piece the right size to hand so I thought I'd show you why the card needs to be bigger than the finished piece

Same sandwich... I know you didn't need to see the same photo twice... but this time I added my third strip of card under the other two card shims before running it through which is what the photo is showing, not only does it emboss a deeper, crisp frame but the strip of card de-bosses a panel across the card too... kind of cool actually :0)

Hope this helps and you have fun playing around with card to find the right combo for you :0)

If I've missed anything or not made something clear please just send me an email and I'll see if I can help you  out.... sorry if you have a Cuttlebug but I think the principle is the same on both machines, the tan mat under the card is the crucial piece of this sandwich.

Well I think that's enough from me, go forth and emboss your nesties with confidence :0)

See you tomorrow for CASual Fridays.

Jenny x

Dies : wonky circles-Cuttlebug, Cloud Border-Taylored Expressions, Linen Impression Plate-Papertrey Ink.

Sentiment stamp : 'Scattered Showers'  PTI.

A Toast to the Happy Couple

Morning everyone :0)

I'm here today with my card for Less is More which I'm also sharing on the Make the Day Special blog.

Its the dreaded One Layer Week, although it's not such a feared concept now amongst the Limettes judging by the number of entries so far!!!..... we have to use three stamps only, no more, no less....mmm  this needed some thinking time....
I'm filling in for Ruby's post this week over at Make the Day Special because her wedding day is approaching, so that sparked my idea for a theme and I used the Wedded Bliss set from Flourishes to make this card.....

My three stamps are the image and sentiment stamp from the flourishes set and a bkgd stamp from Hero arts... I have to say I love the three couples silhouettes in the set, perfect for elegant cards or wedding stationary :0)
I was quite pleased how the sentiment nestled nicely behind the bride and thought the three pearls were need to balance everything up.
I felt her dress needed a little touch of something to make it special so I plumped for a glitter gel pen but teeny tiny rhinestones would look gorgeous too I reckon.

I'm so pleased I've finally mastered the way to emboss my nesties as frames... it's partly due to using washi tape to hold them in place. It's easily removed therefore re-usable and is so thin it doesn't mark or leave lines on your card either :0)
Edited to add : I've made a photo tutorial to show how I embossed the nestie die here

Sorry about the photo...these white space cards are a nightmare to photograph, can't wait until they come up with a camera as clever as the human eye.... Lol, think that'll be a bit of a wait still !!

Thanks for stopping by
Jenny x

A Moooving Card !!

Hellooo, hope you're not getting tired of visiting....this is the fourth post in three days!!!

It's my turn to share a card at the Make the Day Special blog and because I need a 'Moving Home' card I thought I would use an idea I've had kicking around in my head using Lawn Fawn stamps....

This is a puntastic card and carries onto the inside as well....

I just love making scenes with the Lawn Fawn critters and I reckon this is clean and simple enough to enter into the current Lawnscaping challenge too :0)

The cow theme is absolutely spot on for the family this card is going to because they have moved to the outskirts of a village not far from a farm with a herd of cattle grazing in the adjacent fields.
They've bought a lovely house and garden but are worried about the smell of the cows being too intrusive.
Where they were, they had a smaller garden and nightmare neighbours to contend with every day ...... I know I'd rather have the smell of the countryside anyday :0)

Don't forget folks...  if you're in the UK, you can find Lawn Fawn products at Make the Day Special, just here.
That's all from me for a few days, I'll be back in the week.
Have a great weekend, hopefully in the sunshine :0)

Jenny x


Stamps: Critters on the Farm, Jessie's ABC's, Claire's ABC's  Lawn Fawn
Dies: Dienamics MFT
PP : Brightside by Lawn Fawn

Cluck Cluck!!

Good Morning,
It's CASual Fridays time and my second card as a Girl Friday!! Don't worry I'm not going to keep counting them every week :0)
I just want to say a huge thanks for all your sweet comments on last weeks card, it was a great birthday celebration wasn't it and don't forget to keep a look out to see if you won a birthday prize too :0)

Now onto this weeks challenge and we want to see 'Our Feathered Friends' on your projects....

I fell in love with this set of chicken stamps from Artemio, they are just so funny and have lots of different characters in the set... I particularly like the old girl on the right resting on one leg :0) 

I used my Prisma Pencils to shade them although I wasn't too happy with the sky at first but it's growing on me. 

Annabelle Stamps are our fab sponsor this week, the winner will receive a $20 voucher to spend in store :0)

Don't forget to stop at the blog to see all the Girl Fridays cards... such a parade of inspiration and check out the challenge details while you're there..... look forward to seeing your birdie creations :0)

Thanks for looking.

Jenny x

Stamps: 'Picoti Picota' by Artemio,  Chicken Wire Bkgd by Waltzing Mouse Stamps,  'Birthday Words' by Stampendous.

Yellow Fever!!

Hello again... I know, two posts in one day...I'm not very organised am I!!!

If you are here for the Make the Day Special Blog hop

click here for my card :0)

Well the reason for my return so soon is.... I have another card using yellow, yep shoot me down in flames!, I say its a colour I don't use often and then make two cards in one week with it!!

It turns out this week that Annabelle Stamps are wanting cards made with Lemon,Kraft and White so I thought this would be a great time to try using my Prismas on coloured card stock because I just love how it looks.

I've been following the challenges for some time through Therese and Marion ,who are two members of the super talented design team and they make the stamp sets look even yummier than they already appear and I need want to add some to my stamp collection!!

The card is a CASE of JJ's card here, I just love the cut away panel leaving the stamped flower as a bridging piece so I used the flowers from a There She Goes stamp set called Kindred Spirits to recreate the effect and coloured them with my Prismacolours which take very well on SU crumb cake card by the way :0)

I'm hoping this will be acceptable for the Less is More challenge this week because my white space has turned to Kraft coloured space, still a pop of yellow though :0)

Whilst I have the chance I just want to mention my 2 sq inches of fame on page 88 of  the current edition of Papercraft Inspirations :0)  It's was exciting to get an email from them asking to showcase my Jelly Bean card which I made for the masking challenge at LiM....I am in great company on the page with so many of my blogging friends being featured too.
Congrats ladies :0)



I'd best be off now but in the words of Arnie... I'll Be Back!!
Tomorrow morning to be precise with the new challenge over at CASual Fridays.

See you there :0)

Jenny x

Stamps : 'Kindred Spirits' 'Sentimental Birthday' There She Goes, 'Ledger' Hero Arts, 'Text it' Waltzing Mouse Stamps

Ink : Crumb Cake ,Soft Suede & Whisper white SU, Versamark.

Card: Crumb Cake SU

Other : Cinnamon Stickles, WOW embossing powder

Make the Day Special 'May' Blog Hop

Hello Everyone....

Today is our first blog hop over at Make the Day Special, a few of us Design Team girlies are showcasing the same stamp set and we hope to bring you a different set of stamps each month but for this first hop we are all using the Lawn Fawn set called Blissful Botanicals....

Lawn Fawn stamps are great to work with, they stamp like a dream and are perfect for colouring or paper piecing. Emily is the only UK stockist of these and many other International brands of stamps that would otherwise incur big postage and customs costs to buy from overseas, just pop over and visit the store for a browse at the end of the hop... I can highly recommend it *wink* :0)

The hop is purely for fun and to show you how each of us has used the stamps, I can't wait to go look at the rest of the projects as well....we kept it as a surprise to each other too :0)
You should arrived here from Clair's blog but if not, you can start the hop at the Make the Day Special blog.  This is the hop order:

1. Make the Day Special Blog
2. Clair
3. Jenny (that's me )
4. Kate
5. Lucia
6. Ruby

So with just six stops its a short and sweet blog hop and without further ado here's my card...

The thing I love about Blissful Botanicals most are those paired leaf fronds...they're fun to colour and look cute fussy cut, especially with a white edge to them!! I stamped them in Black Memento and coloured with Promarkers before cutting them out and making my little flower arrangement. 

I didn't want to pass up the chance to play along with a couple of challenges so I'm also entering my card into Retro Sketches and a new Colour Challenge blog called Dynamic Duos...

So now it's time to hop onto Kate's Blog to see what flowery goodness she has in store for you.... you know what, I might just see you there :0) 

Thanks so much for hopping along with us

Jenny x

A Little Yellow Pencil

Afternoon everyone .... hope you are all well and rested, unfortunately I felt a little under the weather over the bank holiday ...serves me right for moaning about it I suppose !! but I'm feeling back to normal now, however normal that is :0)

I see over at Less is More, Mandi and Chrissie are injecting a bit of sunshine into blogland with a colour challenge this week, wanting us to use yellow.... mmm  lovely colour but not one I have much around the house especially not to be found in my wardrobe!

I took inspiration from Mandi's card and went with a splash of yellow instead....

I was holding my breath when stamping out those pencils and sticking my tongue out too with concentration no doubt :0) Lol

I used a stamp set from a Hero Arts set called 'Just a Note' which I picked up at Ally Pally a few weeks back and because the pencil is paper pieced I'm entering it into Young Crafters Unite challenge too which is 'No colouring allowed'

We had a busy weekend which included James going out for a family meal to celebrate his friends 19th birthday. His friend goes to the same school so his Mum is well used to looking after children on the Autistic Spectrum and James wanted to be grown up and went without me :0)

He had a great time and sounds like he was the entertainment at the table.... especially when he asked his friends Grandpa, who is bald on top but not at the sides, why his hair had slipped down???

A perfectly reasonable observation I suppose....  you just got to love his innocence sometimes :0)

Thanks for stopping by

Jenny x

A Notebook of Big Ideas

Happy Bank Holiday weekend for those of you in the UK although it looks like its going to continue to be rubbish weather as usual :0(

In todays post over at Make The Day Special, I'm sharing this altered note book I've made using Lawn Fawn and Paper Smooches stamps. It's the first time I've tried anything like this, well apart from the exercise and text books I used to alter when I was at school, but we wont go there *wink* :0)

The thought process behind this 15x10cm ruled book is to keep it in my bag for those moments when I'm out and about and inspiration strikes. If you're like me, you sometimes see or read something which will spark an idea and the old crafty cogs start turning...... to put it another way I'm always daydreaming and thinking about card making and this should help me to remember ideas!

I think I have probably used a dozen different stamp sets on this notebook and my craftroom desk bares testament to this!
The background images have been stamped in Versamark straight onto the Kraft coloured cover and the main images are either paper pieced or stamped directly on to the cover too.

The couple of stamp alterations I made are the pencil from Paper Smooches 'smarty pants' into a book and the filament in the lightbulb from 'perpetual bliss' says 'ideas' instead of 'love' as it does on the stamp.

As I said, I'm new to this and not sure if I need to cover it with Mod Podge or similar to help protect it from scrapes and tears. I have, however, used my large eyelets and cropodile to attach an elastic strap to keep the pages from getting dog-eared, I'll have to see how it survives :0)

I'm pretty pleased with it, loads of fun to make and funnily enough just the sort of design I'm drawn too in the likes of Paperchase..... ooo now there's a shop I could get lost in..... by the way if your ever visiting London, you just have to find time to pop into there flagship store on Goodge street...its A..mazing :0)

Well I have loads to do today with family coming round for lunch... lucky I can just shut the door on the bombsite in the craftroom, if I go and make a start in there we wont have anything to eat!!....

.....but before I go I want to say thanks for all your sweet comments on my first Girl Fridays card, your support and encouragement mean so much and constantly puts a smile on my face :0)
Thank You
Jenny x