Winter Brrrthday!

Hellooo! 

First blog post of the year and its nearly the end of January!!

I thought I'd share this card from before Christmas as its still quite relevant for the 

cooler weather although we haven't had much of that really.

I made this for my Mother-in-law's birthday... she is a top hot chocolate fan 😉

I've used Lil Inkers stamps and dies and have used Copics and pencils to add 

shade to the pieces... I love how it turned out 😊

Unfortunately Lil Inkers is closing its shop doors which is a shame but I 

wish Laura all the best for her future plans.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Comfy Cocoa Die and Stamps, Coffee Talk 2 die - Lil Inkers (discontinued)

Knitted sweater background stamp - MFT

Coffee for Mum

I had to revisit this fab stamp set from Concord & 9th.... it's perfect for a 

Mother's Day card especially for my Mum :)

I love the look of the harsh lines of watercolour layers, I'm just not so good at 

being patient and waiting for the paint to dry so I can achieve it!! 

Well I tried my hardest this time and sat on my hands.... I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Love the hand-drawn lines from Lil Inkers to make a checked tablecloth and we seem to have a 

very clever Barista that has written 'For You' with the steamed milk!! 😃

More details for this card can be found on the Seven Hills Crafts blog HERE.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Lets Chat - Concord & 9th

So Kind stamp set - Avery Elle

Cozy Plaid, Pretty Painted Alpha - Lil Inkers

Ocean Waves bold prints - Hero Arts

Cutting out Cacti

Cacti still seem to be a trend.... not that I make cards to follow trends but I do love cacti!! 

These have been cut out from the Concord & 9th's turnabout set.... once you've

stamped out a 5x5 panel you have a quite a few coordinating images to play with...

I added a few touches of gold to the pots and some background 

stamping for a modern contemporary feel.

I had enough to make a second card too, these are grounded on a frame with

 Lil inkers stamps and dies spelling out the sentiment...

It's good to get another use from the turnabout sets :)

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

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

To The Point Turnabout - Concord & 9th

Pretty Painted Letters - Lil Inkers

Flora & Fauna Texture stamp sets

Fine Frames Cover Die - Altenew

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

Need Coffee

I love the Message Letterboard die.... this design is a total CASE of this pin on Pinterest but I knew

 it would work so well on the letterboard :)

I used a take out cup die from Lil inkers and cut the base twice to get the striped segments and coloured them with Copics :)

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

Stash used:
Letter Message Board - Sugar Pea Designs
Coffee Cozy die - Lil Inkers

Coffee & Craft

This would be my mug although I think I do more of the coffee than the craft some days!!

Love this die from Lil Inkers and the coordinating quotes and phrases to add to it, I decided to go with a sewing theme for the making part but that could easily be changed up :)

The mug is a nice size for ink blending too so I went with an ombre style in Peacock Feather Distress Oxide ink. The sewing accessories are from a Neat & Tangled set.... I just had to add thread to that bobbin and poke it through the eye of the needle :)

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

 more details and links to products.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash used:

Coffee Talk 2 stamps and dies - Lil Inkers

Crafting is my Jam - Neat & Tangled

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

I'll Be Brief!

That's the name of the stamp set but yes, this is a short blog post too 😏

It's time for a new challenge over at Seven Hills Crafts blog and this month is a sketch..

This one had me pondering for a while until I came across the new set from Lil'inkers called I'll Be Brief, I rotated the sketch and those bars became washing lines 😉

It doesn't look a particularly sunny day to dry the washing though does it??!!

Does the sketch inspire you to play along too?... I hope so, we'd love to see you in the gallery :)

Hop over to the blog here for all the challenge details and link up gallery 😊

 I've used red, white and blue so it fits with this weeks challenge over at Less is More too which is the colours of your countries flag so I'll pop it in over there 😄

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Supplies used:

(I'll Be Brief) Lil'inkers

(Cloud Stencil) MFT

(A Birdie Told Me) Lawn Fawn

Floral Patterns

Hellooo,
It's my turn on the Seven Hills Crafts blog today and I'm back to one of my favourite styles... stamping out patterns and this time it's florals ....

I love this whimsical set from Lil'inkers... basic layering and nice bold shapes which go so perfectly with yummy retro colour schemes :) I softly inked the edges of the panel to add that extra vintage feel and to disguise the difference in shades of white cardstock ;)
Nothing more needed than a small banner sentiment.

My next card is much smaller and holds a gift card. I've used the Hero Arts/Lia Griffith set called Just for You... I love this small set... more retro style flowers to play with :)

It was fun colouring this one, just a few Prisma pencils in bright colours :)

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Supplies Used:

Stamps: (Fresh Cut Flowers) Lil Inkers, (Just For You) Hero Arts/Lia Griffith

Laughing Out Loud

I'm over on the Seven Hills Craft blog today bringing a little bit of laughter to your Monday morning!! I have used the Little Emotions stamp set from Mama Elephant to make a fun and bright card...

I thought these little faces would be fun stamped together inside bold lettering so I chose three laughing faces and went with LOL.  I love when I can mix and match my stamp sets so I went back to Lil'Inkers Snarky Sentiments and found this little gem ..... a perfect match :)

The lettering stencils I've used have been in my stash for ages and I love the chunky Comic book feel but you could easily use a font from your computer to make a stencil :)

Thanks for stopping by, hope it brightened your day :)
Jenny x

Get Well Wishes

Hello there :)

My DT project over at the Seven Hills Crafts blog on Monday was this Get Well Wishes card and Pocket Tissue wrap using a teacher stamp set of all things!! Take a look.....

The Teacher Talk set from Lil Inkers includes these fabulous apple stamps and I just couldn't see past the pattern possibilities with them..... very Orla Keily-esque :)

I've used the Avery Elle Card Easel die.... even though it's made to fit American A2 size cards it still works perfectly on the UK A6 size cards :)

You just have to shorten the front of your card 

about the same depth as the die for it to work :)

The pocket tissue packaging is two simple bands of card with a flap opening.. you can get to the tissues by sliding the decorated panel up or down over the flap :)

Love these bright and cheerful apples... 

a good image for a get well soon card.... one of your 5-a-day ;)

Thanks for stopping by, full supply list can be found on my DT post here :)

Jenny x

A New Year, A New Name and a A New Challenge

Hi there and a Happy New Year to you.... I still think I'm in the time frame to say it ;) and what about the New Name and New challenge I hear you say??!! Well over the Christmas period Make the Day Special Stamp Store changed it's name to Seven Hills Crafts and relaunched yesterday with a brand new shiny website to go with it :)

Tara has done an amazing job and spent countless hours in front of a computer screen over the holidays to get the shop open again .... do pop by and have a browse and please be sure to sign up to the new store blog as well, you can find it here :)

Now to the new Challenge... it's our usual monthly challenge but we've got off to a later start this month and we have a colour theme for you...



I went with the middle palette and used the oh so cute set from Lil'inkers called So Prickly...

This set is adorable.... cacti with faces, arms and legs, how could it not be?!

I got it just before Christmas so couldn't resist getting it inky with a bit of masking and stamping :) I'm going to pop it into the Something New challenge over at Simon Says Stamp.

All the details for the colour challenge and the linky tool can be found here.... we hope you join us in our first challenge of 2016 ... hope to see you in the gallery :)

Thanks for stopping by

Jenny x

Hugs & Kisses

It may sound strange but this is a card I've been wanting to make for ages, ever since I bought the word dies... I was waiting until I found a good lipstick mark stamp and luckily Lil Inkers has obliged in their latest release :)

There are some fab luuuurve themed challenges on the go at the moment... Addicted to CAS and Curtain Call to name but a few and my card fits these the best I reckon :0)

                                       
I started by stamping the lips in pigment ink before diecutting the words and stacking numerous layers behind them... some of which are in pink card to just give that hint of colour.
Yay it actually turned out the way I imagined which is always a bonus... that smoochy mark looks sooo realistic too :)

                                                    
Thanks to Anita who pointed out this would fit in over at CASology too... yeah, HOT lips :0)

Stash used:
Smooches - Lil Inkers
Lots of love - Dienamics Dies
Cherry pigment ink - Avery Elle

Jenny x

Decorating Doughnuts

....ooops!! nearly said Good Morning but its afternoon already!!!

It's been a busy weekend with James's birthday yesterday being the happy reason :0)
The card I made him reflects one of his weakness's.... Doughnuts... and oh boy, were these fun to decorate !!

You can go with any decoration or colour you'd like and to give them a nice shine (and help stick the toppings on) I used Glossy Accents on the icing. There's chunky white embossing powder and seed beads but my fave has to be the brown twine spiralled onto the pink icing.... yummy :0)

Needless to say, the card and doughnuts were given the James seal of approval....although he seemed a little concerned that someone had bitten into one of them!!! :0)

Jenny x

Dies: Lil Inkers - Donut Die
Stamps: Lawn Fawn - So Much to Say; Jessies ABC's; Year Two