Christmas Roses

Hello

 Hope you had a lovely Christmas :)

So, it's that strange limbo period between Christmas and New Year...  

I'm sure I never really noticed it when I was a kid... too busy playing with new toys I suppose!

I thought I'd pop on here and share this card I made for my MiL who had a birthday at the start of the month, it's always quite a nice break from making Christmas cards. I went with these lovely Hellebore's in three different colours..

The white one has to be my favourite, on the card and in real life, 

but the green varieties come a close second.

I used two of the fine frames from Altenew to group them onto... 

I love this die set but my 'old' Big Shot struggles with intricate dies like this... 

I've ordered one of the brand new Chrome Precision plates to hopefully 

give her a hand and prolong her life 😊

So that's all for 2018, thank you so much for visiting me here and

 leaving comments... I do read and really appreciate them.

I'd like to wish you all the best for a happy and healthy 2019

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Hellebore builder - Wplus9

Fine Frames Rectangle - Altenew

Birdie Brown Greetings Galore - MFT

Winter Bear Hugs

I love this cuddly bear!!.... never thought of him as retro looking but this 

card comes across like that! 

Perhaps its the colours I used and the black trees in the background but 

I'm quite pleased how this card turned out

Another card for my stash...

 not everyone wants a jolly, happy or merry Christmas card 

You can find more details for this card on my DT blog post here

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash used:

Holiday Hugs - Wplus9

Hugs - Concord & 9th

Arctic Starry Night - Flora & Fauna

Holly Jolly

I'm still cranking out Christmas Cards and I wanted to use this die set from Wplus9.

This was my first card, having watercoloured some holly sprig die-cuts from Flora & Fauna, 

I love the pop of bright green against the white woodgrain.

I used gold powder to heat emboss the Holly Jolly sentiment whilst still intact in the

 sentiment bubble which meant I had the outer piece left over to make a second card....

 this is my favourite of the two.

More details on my DT post on the Seven Hills Blog here

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Holly Jolly Die, Holly Jolly Stamps - Wplus9

Holly Branch Die - Flora & Fauna

Pastel Baubles

I'm a 'traditional Christmas' colour girl at heart, loving my greens and reds but I have to say that muted pastels are up there too in a close second. I was inspired by the bird in

 this Flora & Fauna set to try and make some masked tree baubles in

 dusty pink, blue and beige... love how they turned out.

I think these may be my cards this year, I love the softness of the colours and they

 are a nice design to make in batches too. 

I sponged soft grey through a mask and then added the foliage and bird through the mask too.

The little bow and hoop are made using dies and they add a little bit of 

dimension to an otherwise one layer design :)

You can find more details on my DT post over on the Seven Hills blog here.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash used:

Mini Aviary Set, Winter Aviary Set, Holiday Terrarium - Flora & Fauna

3D Mini Bow die - Waffleflower

Coffee and Wine

Hehe... this is a great phrase!!

I thought I'd do some no-line colouring with Polychrome pencils for the 

images and trim them out.

Wasn't quite sure at first how to use the phrase but I decided that it looked like it could

 be written on a blackboard in chalk, so that's what I went with...

You can find more details on my DT post on the Seven Hills crafts blog here

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Coffee & Wine - Newtons Nook

Scattered Surface Background - MFT

Pink Pop

Pink Pop!!! not the drinkable kind I might add.

No this is very much a girly card for a pop princess with it's pink and black combo 

and lashings of glitter...

I love this MFT set and the coordinating spotlight stencil... that makes life a lot easier and I found the Avery Elle die set to be a perfect frame as well. Colouring people is not my thing ... especially hair but using Polychrome pencils helped I think.

You can find more details on my DT post over at the Seven Hills Blog here.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash used:

Friendship Rocks - MFT

Spotlight Stencil - MFT

Let it Snow dies - Avery Elle

In the Mountains

We had a fabulous holiday in Switzerland this summer enjoying the mountain scenery and cable cars, so when I saw this stamp set from Hero Arts I had to have it :)

To make a mountain landscape I have used Mama elephants arch dies to help it pop up!!

The two little cable cars dangle on silver thread and no, that's not me skiing! I prefer to admire the scenery with two feet firmly on the ground plus, it was a lot more green when we were there 😉

This is how I positioned the scenery and pop up elements

To keep the card closed I made a wrap that slides over the card base and added a 

simple stamped scene to lead the recipient to the surprise inside

More details can be found on my DT blog post over on the Seven Hills Crafts blog here

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Inside Arch Dies - Mama Elephant

Ski Holiday - Hero Arts

Christmas Flora & Fauna

Nothing like new Christmas stamps to inspire some seasonal crafting!!

I've used a few stamps and dies from the latest Flora & Fauna release to make these two cards..

Now that's what I call a warm winter hat... just what a little penguin needs when he's waiting for Santa to arrive. I love the simple four block border of Buffalo plaid in the Texture 7 stamp set... great for lining up or stacking to make your own pattern.

This is my fave of the two.... I used a solid stamp for the sky and inked it in three different blues then added a curve of glitter paper and three die cut trees.... fab collage effect :)

You can find more details on my DT post on the Seven Hills Crafts blog here.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash used:

Arctic Critters, Texture 7, Festive nature, Mini dress up Penguin,

 Holiday Word Party - Flora & Fauna

Just because it's Autumn

I have a couple of cards I made using the thankful leaves turnabout stamp from Concord&9th.

I love the vibrant colour of the oxides on Kraft card 😊

I made one whole patterned piece and trimmed strips from around the edges for the first card and cut an aperture in the remaining scrap for the second. The water-coloured leaves are also from the background, I just trimmed them out and used them as embellishments.

You can find more details on my DT post on the Seven Hills Crafts blog here.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Thankful Leaves Turnabout, Just Because dies - Concord&9th

Signature Word dies - Altenew

Time to Twirl

I'm back with another Interactive Card inspired by the awesome Jennifer McGuire... this one is a peek-a-boo card and you can find her You Tube tutorial here 

I thought the Tu-Tu Cute set from Waffleflower would work well... the little ballerina changes poses 

I even got 'techy' brave and made a short silent video to show the card in action...

I love the simple mechanism for this card.... 

now thinking which other sets would work 🤔

You can find my DT post for this card on the Seven Hills Crafts blog here.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Tu-Tu Cute - Waffleflower

Star Turnabout - Concord & 9th

A Classic!

Sometimes.... well most of the time actually, I don't think about the sentiment for a card or plan where I'm going to put it... well not for this card!! The sentiment inspired the whole thing 😊

You can't get more classic than a VW van and this die from Flora and Fauna is just so fun! Its a great size and simple enough to paper piece whilst still adding those chrome details.

This card came together quite quickly.... perhaps I need to start with the sentiment more often... or at least work out where is should go 😉

You can find my DT post for this card on the Seven Hills Crafts blog here.

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

Stash Used:
VW van die - Flora & Fauna clear
Birthday Essentials - Newtons Nook

Uncork and Unwind with a Pop up Card!

Well that's quite an invitation for a title!!
I was inspired to make this pop up slider card after watching the hugely creative
 Jennifer McGuire's video here... the only difference is, I don't have the die set she
used but could see how the MFT Blueprints 28 would work instead...

So here are a few photos to show how I used the large opening flap panel in the set

 to make the sliding pop up portion. I started by scoring the flap in two places and

 adding a thumb cut just above the hinge

I pretty much followed the assembly instructions in Jennifer's video... by adding the

 strip of contrasting card along the bottom edge of the flap you also cover the unwanted 

thumb notch the die puts in for you.

The rest is just down to adding decoration to the front of the slider... I went for the MFT 

wine service dies as this was for a particular friend who loves her red wine 😉 

I was quite chuffed this worked out in the end.... yay for stretching those supplies!!

You can find my DT post for this card on the Seven Hills Crafts blog here

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash used:

Wine service, Uncorked & Blueprints 28 dienamics - MFT

Coffee Ring - Altenew

Royally Fabulous Day

How do you celebrate a girly 40th birthday?.... with a pink crown of course!!

Now pink and girly is totally out of my own comfort zone but I have to say, it

 was fun to make this card..

.... fun until I had the great idea to add the feathers for a fluffy trim!! Next time I'd use a dry adhesive because wet glue was a nightmare...... talk about being tarred and feathered 😆

I used pink distress oxides and micro glaze on glossy card stock to make my own panel to cut the crown from and then added extra layers for dimension. It had to have bling, on the crown and behind it.... love the Bitty Burst background in a mix of colours too!

You can find my DT post on the Seven Hills Crafts blog for this card here

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Crown Die, Queen for the Day stamp set - MFT

Bitty Burst Turnabout - Concord&9th

Bespoke Sneakers

August was a busy month for birthdays!! 

This was a fun one to make as I just knew the young recipient would 

love a pair of sneakers like these :)

I used a Hero Arts background stamp with black ink to make the scripty material for the boots.

I cut the shoes and all the trimmings and then, when they were all assembled, I laced them up with a rainbow cord... Love it :)

I actually think I'd quite like a pair of these too.... and how funky does that 

radiating dots background look heat embossed in white!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash used:

High Top dienamics - MFT (discontinued)

Highline Chalkboard background - Hero Arts (discontinued)

Radiating Halftone Background - MFT

Sketchy Numbers - Waffleflower

Finleys 123's - Lawn fawn

A Floral Trug

Here's a card I made for a dear friend and it was great fun breaking out both Fresh Cut floral Stamp sets from Wplus9 again. I remember when they first came on the scene... they were the first multi step stamps I had in my stash and now its fun to try them with new inks :)

My friend started her own flower farm this year and has had a busy first summer not to mention a battle with the hot dry weather, she has done so well. Her card had to be floral and I wanted to use this trug die from Joanna Sheen... what a colourful arrangement :)

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x  

Stash Used:

Fresh Cut Florals, More Fresh Cuts - Wplus9

Trug Die - Joanna Sheen (discontinued)

Scripty B'day - Mama Elephant

Leave your Mark

This is another one of those cards where I suddenly had an idea that caused me to smile ;)

These little snails needed inking up and whilst looking for suitable stamps for a snail trail I found this brushstrokes set from Mama Elephant which also contained a dotted stamp too...

How did that snail make his trail??

I had to alter the other snails smiley face to a look of surprise, easily done with a gel pen and

 added a question mark above him to reinforce his puzzled thoughts!!

On a side note, it turns out we do have an Olympic snail living in our garden judging 

by the trail marks we found one morning!!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash used:

Snailed it - Lil Inkers's

Brushstrokes - Mama Elephant

Building Patterns

We had an one-stop-blog-hop post over on the Seven Hills Crafts blog and these are my two cards using the new Pattern Builder stamp set from Reverse Confetti..

This card uses the set as intended but you have quite a few options for pattern building with lots of shapes and layers. I went for a tiled look as the shapes reminded me of tile or quilt patterns. Using the Misti helped a lot with this process then I trimmed them out and arranged them at an angle on the card base.

Having played about with the shapes I could see the petals and centre to a Cone flower style of plant so I tried stamping them out in shades of yellows, oranges and purples...

The single oval shape made a good leaf and I drew in the stems with a green distress marker.

I think they make quite good stylised flower heads :)

If you haven't already, hop on over to see the rest of the DT inspiration using 

other Reverse Confetti stamps and dies... click here

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Pattern Builder, Whole Lotta Happy and Tall Blooms - Reverse Confetti

Brain Freeze

I tried my hand at making my own background pattern for this card, love the pastel stripes which I created by water colouring with distress inks to match the colours on the ice cream :)

I also water-coloured the cone and gave it a waffle effect and I had to make it a raspberry ripple flavour... not that it's my favourite but because I fancied the challenge of trying to paint it!!

You can find my DT post for this card on the Seven Hills Crafts blog here.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Sno Awesome - Reverse Confetti