Happy Birds

Our garden has become a playground for young birds at the moment, being in the countryside, we have quite a variety from sparrows to the great spotted woodpeckers... we even had a family of fledgling swallows precariously balanced on some metal framework the other day!

The most colourful are the blue tits but I don't own any stamps of British birds

so I thought I'd adapt these Wplus9 birdies in a very stylised way....

I used a pale tone on tone ink on the Kraft coloured card and my 

Prismacolour pencils to colour them.

The little fella on the end chirping away just had to be sending Birthday greetings...

perhaps he'd rather Tweet it!!  😄

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Happy Birds - Wplus9

Critter Chatter - Lawn Fawn

Gearing up for a 50th

I had a guys 50th birthday card to make for a relative and he's a keen cyclist so 

I had the idea to use this Paper Smooches die and highlight the parts of the 

frame to make the numbers 5 and 0.... 

Using the white diecuts on a white card base gives a clean and simple look

... ideal for a masculine card . 

I noticed The Male Room challenge have the perfect theme at the moment so I'll pop it in

 over there It's a great challenge to get those guys cards made and I follow along but never 

get around to making stuff for challenges anymore! What can I say... I know the idea is 

to challenge yourself to make a card but the stars have aligned for me this

 week and the theme is perfect.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Bicycle Die - Paper Smooches

Beep Boop Birthday (retired) - Lawn Fawn

Hap-pea Birthday

Today I have happy peas to share with you... in fact they're jumping for joy!!

I love this new set from Lawn Fawn, lots of face options and if you don't want to 

colour the peas you can use a solid stamp in the set, which I did here, and used 

two shades of green ink...

I used a large Lawn Fawn alpha for the letters

Wasn't sure what to do in the background so I went with a green wall in the end..

hey what can I say, they're urban peas 😂

More details can be found on my DT blog post over at Seven Hills crafts HERE

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Be-Hapea stamps and dies - Lawn Fawn

Finley's Alpha Dies - Lawn Fawn

English Brick Wall Stencil - MFT

Cheeky Birthday - Hero Arts

Baby Box

I've finally got round to using the Mini Pop Up Box die from Lawn Fawn, it makes 

such a cute card and what better occasion to use it for than the arrival of a cute baby...

I used MFT's baby clothes die to cut a trio of garments and the celebration balloons 

from Mama Elephant to add a bit of height to the arrangement.... 

here's a photo of the opened card..

I made a couple of nappies using the bottom and sleeves of the onsie in the die set, 

I have more details and photos on the Seven Hills Crafts blog here to show you.

I kept the front of the card simple, using a sentiment from MFT and a twine wrap to help keep the card closed. The cute star charm is from the pop up box die.... the perfect finishing touch.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Mini Pop Up Box Die - Lawn Fawn

Bundle of Baby Clothes, Welcome Baby, Woodplank Background Stamp - MFT

Celebration Balloons & dies - Mama Elephant

Totally Toads!

Well aren't I the lazy blogger!! It's the start of February tomorrow so I thought I should put in an appearance for January with a couple of recent cards...

I thought I'd try a simple interactive card with these MFT toads, they are fun to colour.... breaking out my different green Copic combinations. This is what happens when you pull the tab..

The mechanism is hidden thanks to Lawn Fawns new slider die which fits perfectly on the back of the toad... he he.... basically he's toast shaped!! 😃 

I coloured up a fourth toad but couldn't fit him in the pond so he got his own separate card and is quite far from the pond!!!.....

I presume he's positioned so he can sit on a lily pad but I also thought he could be floating away with a bunch of heart shaped balloons. He does look rather out of place but then again he's trying to get a message across 😉

I have more details about these cards on the Seven Hills crafts blog here and here.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Toad-ally Awesome, Heart Balloon die, Mini Well Connected Alpha - MFT

Let's Toast pull tab die - Lawn Fawn

Critter Card Puns, Cloud dies - Paper Smooches

Savannah Sunset

When I look at this card I want to burst into song "Can you feel the luuuurve tonight?....."

you know from The Lion King :) I can certainly feel the warmth from this card and it's glowing sunset.... oh hang on.. that might be the heatwave outside!!! 😳

Silhouette scenes are fun to make... a go-to colour palette and high contrast which just packs a punch. I decided to put Mr Rhino in the foreground on the sentiment strip so he would stand out a bit from the shadows :)

For more detail you can visit my DT blog post over at Seven Hills Crafts here

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Wild about you - Hero Arts

Simply Sentiments - Lawn Fawn

Lolly Letter Board

Seeing as we're still in the midst of a heatwave here I thought this ice lolly Letterboard would be perfect to share today 😊  The letterboard trend is in home decor at the moment so I was happy to see Sugar Pea Designs bring out a die to use for crafting projects....

The letter dies are all joined in one piece which makes life so easy to whizz them through the Big Shot several times.... I keep all the spares in a lidded container for future use. I used the Summer Scoops stamp set to make my delicious lollies and trimmed them out with scissors...

It just happens that Lawn Fawns Finley alphabet dies are a great font for the letterboard too... they are larger so give you more options for your letterboard messages 😊

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

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Letter Message Board - Sugar Pea Designs

Summer Scoops Stamp set - Sugar Pea Designs

Finleys ABC's - Lawn Fawn

Love and Hedgehugs

These hedgehogs are an older Lawn Fawn set but they're just the job for an anniversary card for my Brother and Sister-in-Law..... they seem to have a large number visit their garden which is not easy when you have a dog that views them as a play thing!!

The confetti background is subtle in a pale pink... another older set from Wplus9!!

I stamped the hedgies in shades of brown ink and used copics to colour them, I'm pleased how they turned out :)

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash used:

Hedgehugs - Lawn fawn

Borders & Backgrounds 3 - Wplus9

Ocean Scenes

I challenged myself for these two cards!!
I used the shadow box ocean add-on dies from Lawn Fawn but didn't want to make shadow boxes.... they're quite a versatile set of dies on their own...

The scalloped frame is such a useful die which cuts a lovely aperture in your card front and I've tucked the aquatic leaves and plants behind it. Jaws is swooshing into the scene and that shoal of fish are making their quick escape in the background!!

When it comes to the wave die cuts, you can cut the tabs off to use them flat, but instead I left them on and curved them on the card front for some dimension. I had to shorten one of the waves so they layered together but this is quite easy to do...

I added the stripes to the card base using a stencil and a good dose of glitter pen to the waves for a shimmery sea. That little whale is just so cute and the coral makes the perfect water squirt from his blowhole :)

There are more details on my blog post over at the Seven Hills Crafts blog here.

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

Stash Used :
Shadow Box Ocean Add Ons - Lawn Fawn
Tiger and Lily - Waffleflower
Seaprise - Avery Elle
Splash - Avery Elle
Shiplap Stencil - Carta bella

Birthday Llama!!

Sometimes when I'm browsing Pinterest of walking past a greetings card display, a funny quote or pun catches my eye and I know I have to use it on a card....

This particular pun would work for any birthday but I needed a 30th Birthday card for our nephew and this is it :) The MFT Llamas worked well because I could adapt the expression on the forward facing chap to suit the phrase inside the card...

Yes,,, I think he looks suitably alarmed and surprised!!!

More details on the Seven Hills Crafts blog here If you are interested.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

LLama Love, Make Your Mark Background Stamp - MFT

Celebration Countdown, Harold's ABC's - Lawn Fawn

Double the Warmth

It's always nice to send warm wishes but at this time of year in the northern hemisphere, its even more appropriate!! It's also a lovely alternative to a 'Happy' sentiment on a Birthday or Christmas card.

These little feathered friends are cuddled up for warmth on a cold snowy night..Brrrr. I did some simple masking to arrange them along the branch and coloured them with Copics. I even had a go at colouring the sky which was scary stuff as it started off looking a mess but gradually came round :)

I cut them out with a tag die and added black twine..... my top tip is to rub Multi Matte Medium onto the twine so it holds a nice shape bow ;) I then just added a couple of strips of card along with a sentiment under the tag :)

This next card was fun to make using the hats and mittens from a Wplus9 stamp set to create a border edge down the card front...

Simple masking again and I used the outline and solid images from the set which i think look so good when slightly off set :) I trimmed around the hats and gloves to give a fancy shaped edge which is more obvious with the contrasting black card strip behind.

I used a small star stamp to decorate some of the hats and gloves and added a sentiment made up from a couple of sets.

Well it's certainly hat and glove weather out there today, I'll have to dig mine out for the dog walk later..... sadly they're not as colourful as these.

Both cards have featured on the Seven Hills Crafts blog here and here

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

Stash Used:
Winter Owl, Winter Sparrows  (LawnFawn)
Sentimental Winter (Winnie & Walter)
Tag Stitched (Paper Smooches)

Holiday Cheer (Wplus9)
Argyle Backdrops (Lawn Fawn)
Birthday Wishes and Balloons (MFT)

Playing with Plaid and Vegtables

Hi there, sticking my head up above the summer holidays again (said whilst waving hand!)

Yep, I have a couple of cards to share again today and funnily enough both would be suitable for guys again.... I seem to subconsciously gravitate towards this genre!!

I have at least three plaid builder stamp sets but it took until Waffleflowers latest release to have a go a stamping out my own pattern... I say my own but its actually heavily influenced by this photo on Pinterest.  To give that white fleck in the solid stripes, I first stamped the Scattered Surface background from MFT in Versamark on the card panel .... I did it twice with a 90° turn in between.

The versamark ink sort of resists the dye ink and gives the impression of a material texture, I also used the diagonal striped stamp in the set to add more pattern detail. I didn't use the Misti for this stamping... I found it easier to use acrylic blocks...

 Now for the veggie card... in honour of National Allotment week (14 - 20th August)

I had fun stamping out this pattern, its a cute Lawn Fawn set which takes on a different feel if you don't use the little faces on the veggies...

I did use the Misti for this one... it makes re-stamping the solid images easier so you can add extra shading with darker ink colours. I just love all those bright colours :)

Who wouldn't love a card full of veggies... it's almost one of your 5-a-day :)

Stash used:

Plaid Play - Wafflerflower

Scattered Surface Background - MFT

Across the Card -Neat & Tangled

Rooting for You - Lawn Fawn

Quote Tag Dies - Paper Smooches

Thanks for stopping by

Jenny x

A Post at Last (part b)

Hello there again,

Okay so here are a few more recent projects to catch up on.... and they seem to be all animal related which is a pure coincidence!!

I Had to have these dies from Paper Smooches.... love that they look like the animal has taken a selfie :) Lol.  Lots of dies in the set so I had a play and ended up with this character.... I reckon he's a husky type breed with bright blue eyes like that ;)

Next up is this cute little doggy kennel I made using the Lawn Fawn Milk Carton. By adding a cardboard roof it not only makes it more of a kennel shape but holds the carton closed too. Of course I couldn't find anything doggy related to go inside for the photos but have since found some mini Scottie dog shaped shortbread biscuits in Sainsbury's that would have been perfect .. *sigh* ;)

A couple more photos but there are others on my Seven Hills blog post (link below)... oh and the doggies around the outside are from a Wplus9 stamp set by the way....

I can't help thinking that Snoopy should be lying up on that kennel roof!!

Finally, to bring us up to date is this card which just makes me smile...

Seriously, that bear's expression was made to go with a phrase like that!! I'm just glad pants aren't trousers here in the UK or I'd have to think again!! I also got round to trying out the technique of using a stencil as a guide to making the dotty backdrop, so subtle and I love it :)

Here are the Links to the Seven Hills blog posts for these projects with more details and links to the products used..
Raise the Woof - click here
Kennel Milk Carton - click here
Smarty Pants - click here

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

Quick Notepad Gifts

Hi there,

Just playing catch up again with some DT projects...

This week, over on the Seven Hills Crafts blog, I shared these notepads which are 

shop bought jotters that I've added a decorated cover too....

They're very simple to make and make something quite boring look rather pretty.... you can even add a piece of thin magnet to the backs so you can put them on the fridge.

They were great fun to make and colour... I shouldn't have a favourite but I

 think it has to be the Kraft coloured one 😉

I have a few more details here on the SHC blog but really it's just a scored and folded strip of card.

They make handy little gifts when slipped inside a cellophane bag 

with a brand new sharpened pencil 😊

I also missed sharing another card using the Woodland Basics dies from Wplus9...

I love the white on white (cream on cream in this case) but I felt those dies needed an 

injection of brown into the design, love this combo.

The dies are layered 3 or 4 times to add dimension without having to 

cut fiddly pieces of foam dimensionals.

More details about this card can be found over on the SHC blog here :)

Thanks for stopping by

Jenny x