A Big Birthday!

Hi Everyone...... I know it's the warmest February day for five years here in the UK and I'm in crafting!!! ....Rolo is not impressed!
The reason being , it's my Uncles 65th birthday this weekend and I needed to make a card to send so I looked to blogland for some inspiration.

Well the colours at ColourQ are just gorgeous and could easily be used on a feminine card but I decided they would make a great masculine card in this instance, The Paper Players are asking for Clean and Simple masculine cards this week and I couldn't resist another chance to play again with the die-cuts challenge at Less is More , so that was enough inspiration to make this card....

The 'argyle' pattern is made using my PTI stamp set and the numbers are cut using dienamics dies, the sentiment and 'woodgrain' effect on the numbers are made using the stamp set that goes with the dies.
I made the label tag from an oval die-cut and then knotted 'Oyster' bakers twine onto the metal triangular fastener.

Here are the challenge details

After waking up and creeping round with a dizzy head this morning I was thrilled to see that my splash of pink card won 'Cup of the Week' at the Play Date Cafe... whoo hoo :0)  It was such a last minute make on Tuesday but I'm so glad I found the time to join in.

Right, time to take the terror out for a walk in this lovely warm sunshine.

Thanks for visiting me today and hope your enjoying this summery weather if you're in the UK :0)

Jenny x

A Colour Splash and Candy Winners

Hi Everyone,
 I just had to play along with this weeks Play Date Cafe Colour splash and my crafty morning turned out to be not so crafty, so I've only just finished making my card :0)

This is one of those cards that looks better in real life but you can just about make out the camouflaged people on the newsprint background in the first photo !

The paper dolls are a Dienamics die which I've snipped into groups of four, arranged them and then stamped the Hero Arts newsprint background onto them and slightly inked the edges with Black Soot Distress ink. I stamped the bkgd again onto white card and then used foam dots to stick the dolls over the same piece of bkgd text!
I ran the die through again with black card and snipped off one doll to glue on top of the line up and added a pink heart gem.
A couple of mats and a sentiment, it was finished ..... not sure if they are too well camouflaged now!!!

Does this show them better..... I'm glad it turned out how I imagined it :0)

Now onto my Blog Candy winners and I want to say thanks to all you guys for the lovely comments you left me, I wish I could send you all a little something but I'm afraid three people it has to be and Mr Random .Org shuffled the numbers and came up with....

Ann Y

Kate

and last but not least

Marie

Congratulations ladies :0) 

Please can you email me on jemullens@btinternet.com so I can sort out mailing the candy to you.

It's fun having a giveaway, I'll try not to leave it too long before I have another one next time :0)

Right then, school stuff to organise for the morning not to mention an untidy craftroom , best get cracking then.... thanks for calling by :0)

Jenny x

Blog Candy Time

Hello Everyone,

As promised I have some blog candy to give away to celebrate my first year of blogging and I've made a Thank You card to all of my fabulous blog buddies for making my first year in blogland so enjoyable :0) Your comments always make my day and I do enjoy visiting you all back in the ever growing battle between crafting time, blogging time and family life!!

With it being Valentines week I've choosen three prizes that are stash I LOVE to use, a stamp set each from Lawn Fawn and Paper Smooches and the new Speech Bubble dies from Xcut that I've had some fun with recently :0)

I will also add some extra goodies with each of them before sending and all you have to do is leave a comment on this post before 10pm GMT Mon 20th Feb for a chance to win  .

You do not have to be a follower to enter but I'd be thrilled if you decided to join my blog followers because you like what you see..... oh and it's not restricted to crafters from the UK :0)

Just for a bit of self indulgence I've also put together a montage of 12 of my favourite cards (one from each month) to show you, it was great fun looking back through the archives and seeing how my style has developed and how my photography skills improved with the help of a lightbox!!!

Here's my  Feb 2011 - Jan 2012 favourites collection, although I could have picked more :0)

(Sorry some of these are a little blurry, I had to copy them from my blog)

It's not been a good week for crafting, I find spare time thin on the ground when James is at home which then means my mojo makes a dash for the door too!! He's been keen to be outside with his Go Kart and trailer now the weather has turned a little milder, so we've been in the garden when we can.

We have also been busy visiting York and Warwick Universities for the department open days recently and I'm pleased to say that Hannah has had an offer from Bath Uni which she is over the moon about, she has to continue the hard work now to get the grades needed which I'm confident will happen :0)

I'm also sure Hannah won't mind me telling you that she passed her driving test today as well, so things are on a bit of a roll at the moment for her....lets hope it continues.

Thanks for looking in today and don't forget to say hello for a chance to win :0)

Jenny x

Rainbow Stripes

Good morning.
Another long absence! Not sure why, life just happens like that and this week the kids are off from school and  the calendar is filling up so I'm especially glad the snow is finally thawing, I must admit I've had enough of it now especially when night-time temperatures dip to minus double figures too!!
This weeks challenge at Less is More is to use stripes and it's one layer week too so extra thinking time is required.
My stripes have been inspired by the pretty colours on the photo inspiration at Jay Gees Nook, aren't those pictures just gorgeous... not to mention the pile of washi tape in the centre photo :0)
So with pretty colours and stripes it had to be a rainbow which went perfectly with this sentiment from inkadinkado......

 The cloud and sun are Lawn Fawn stamps and I made the rainbow with part of a clear border stamp that I shaped on an acrylic block. I was able to use my brilliance ink pads for the rainbow, they're some of the first pads I bought but are still nice and juicy!
Well today is my blogs first birthday and I have to say what a fun year it has been, I've met and made lots of crafty blog pals whilst enjoying exploring the clean and simple genre of card making, which has become a more comfortable style for me :0) Now I haven't had a giveaway on my blog for ages so I thought I would mark my first blogversary and going over 200 followers a few weeks back with a little blog candy...... look out for that post later this week :0)
I'm actually writing this on Blogsy whilst waiting at the garage for the car to be checked over, It's been temperamental at starting when the engine is warm which is not a reliable car in my book and with a long journey to do this week it needed checking out!
As for Blogsy, I've been having a play and watching lots of You Tube tutorials and it's a really good app.... just needs some practice that's all. I've managed to do links in this post and insert photos via a Picasa web album, well I hope I have!,  the only couple of downsides for me is you're not able to preview your post on your blog so I can't check photo size etc and the choice of fonts doesn't contain the one I use on blogger but this might be something that's easily resolved with further investigation :0)
Right I'm going to post this now..... here goes and thanks for looking, if you can!
Jenny x

a Burst of Aqua

Good Morning,

I'm writing this post again because the fist one disappeared into the ether ....more on that later!

So it's Happy Birthday to Less is More, one year ago Chrissie and Mandi launched the blog with a colour challenge and 52 weeks later we are of course back to a colour week and this time the requirement is

AQUA

..... not a colour I've used much but I found three shades of aqua in my versamagic chalk inks and decided to use the small solid flower burst stamp from Hero Arts, to make this card

I wanted to try the 'off the edge' style of stamping on a raised panel so I used removable tape to place the white panel on my card base and then stamped my design. 

By matting the panel on aqua coloured Bazzil I could then cover the white space that appears when you stamp on two different levels of card but the image still flows across the the blue border even though the centre piece is raised on foam tape.

I added a sentiment and some pearls but felt afterwards that it looked a little empty.... wondering if it was to do with the positioning of the stamps of pearls?

I had a comment from Tara on the original post (sorry that got deleted as well!) pointing out that maybe the top three pearls break the natural triangle of the stamped elements and I'm tending to agree with that but I will also agree that I should leave it be....... call it artistic license :0)  Lol 

Right now to the missing post!!! 

I think I managed to delete it accidently in Blog Press which is another app I'm trying on my iPad in an attempt to find a way to post to this blog on the device..... I seem to be failing at the moment and the computer is winning hands down but I will not give up that easily, the sticking point is putting decent pictures in the post and editing published posts so we'll have to call it a working progress at the moment!!

I had better get this linked up again to Less is More.... I have to say I love looking at all the thumbnails on colour challenge weeks, they look so pretty :0)

Thanks for stopping by today... especially if it's for a second time! Lol

Jenny X

OLW - Colour in Winter

Hi everyone,
Well it's great to have a break from the recent dull weather we've had because it's been a lovely sunny winters day here and the mutt and I got out for an earlier walk to make the most of it,  when I got back home I decided to make a card for this weeks One Layer Wednesday at Susan's blog Simplicity.  I used to play along regularly so I need to get back to that routine, it's always good to stretch the creative braincells with a OLC !!!

Inspired by the early signs of spring, Susan wants us to use a pop of colour with white and grey on our OLC and only use black for the sentiment if we have to .
Perhaps it was my sunny walk that inspired me to tackle this weeks challenge today, although our walk did involve a fair bit of squelchy mud too!,  but I used this Penny Black border stamp and embossed it in white, then coloured the leaves and flowers with coloursoft pencils and used enamel accents for the flower centres.

It was at this point I realised I had not thought about the sentiment.... not black! (which would have looked too harsh anyway), so I stamped and embossed again... whilst holding my breath! Oh it could have gone so wrong at this point but I think I got away with it :0)

I had been trying a technique from card class which is to colour the white embossed lines but Jennifer McGuire used Prismacolour pencils and my coloursoft guys just weren't going to play nicely and do the same thing so I settled for colouring in between the lines and I have to say I'm impressed with the pop of pink on the grey!

I'm linking this up to Simon Says Stamp this week as they have an 'Anything Goes' challenge to win a $50 store voucher :0)

This weekend in the UK it's the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch 2012, I hope you can join in and record the feathered visitors to your garden for an hour either Saturday or Sunday, details can be found on the RSPB website here on how to take part. We usually make it a family occasion because you need that many eyes to count them!!

Thanks for your visit today :0)
Jenny x

The w'hole' picture

It's a rainy day here my crafty friends so that means ignore the housework and do some crafting ...right! :)

I've been pondering the Cut it Out challenge at Less is More this week and also wanted to join in with the Lawnscaping Challenge 'Winter Wonderland' so I put them together and hey presto .....

I do have other Lawn Fawn sets... honest, but the Winter Wonderland challenge just called for me to ink up these cute little snow critters again (and I love colouring them) for a photograph, and the Cut it Out challenge means you can open the card to see our little friends posing for the photo :)

I've used the school house backdrops to make the lined page effect and stamped the polaroid onto real photo paper with grey Stazon before cutting it out, ageing it with Old paper DI and curling a couple of corners. Do you like the bright green washi tape holding it on the page???

and who knew that Tim Holtz grunge stamps would ever work so well with Lawn Fawn stamps!!

I sooo enjoyed making this card and it means I've kept quiet and out of the way of Hannah who is busy revising for a Biology exam tomorrow..... well quiet apart from the 80's music escaping from the craftroom that is!!
The Lawn Fawn sets used are : Critters in the snow, Say Cheese, Schoolhouse backdrops, Swimsuit Season & Sophies Sentiments.
 I buy mine in the UK from Make the Day Special

I was so happy to see my Rain and Shine card made Colour Courtier this morning AND I have noticed that my list of followers has reached the 200 mark in the last day or two so a big thank you to all my crafty friends who visit my blog..... I'm deciding what to do to celebrate as I also have my first Blogaversary coming up around Valentines day too so I may just combine the two.... Still thinking on that one :)

Thanks for popping by today though, I really appreciate your comments, they always put a smile on my face :o)

Jenny X

Rain or Shine !

Hi Crafty Peeps :o)

This is going to be a super quick post as I'm off out the door shortly and I need to get this card in at ColourQ before the deadline later!!

I just love the rich colours for this weeks palette and was determined to use them so after a brainstorming session with my stamps I made this card this morning.....

Love this sweet little Unity stamp which I ordered amongst other stash with my gift vouchers for Simon Says Stamp :) I tried very hard to get the colours right and then the camera has slightly distorted them too but I think you'll agree they're close :)

We had a great time at the bowling alley .... a few strikes by everyone including James!!!
A few aches and pains this morning from using muscles I forgot I had!! Lol

Thanks for looking

Jenny X

In the dark!!

Hey it's the weekend, my favourite because there's no timetable to keep to...... I wish they lasted longer and came round quicker though!!

Did you know, over at CASual Fridays this week the challenge is in honour of Penguin Awareness day!!! Never knew there was such a day.... I wonder if penguins have a human awareness day?  ooops, I digress :) ..... and the challenge is to make a black and white card with no other colour on it at all!

A-ha a chance to make a stylish and elegant card, I thought ....... No! my childish imagination took over and I started to play around with a new set of speech bubble dies from X-cut and this card came about after a lot of phaffing and pushing card around - you wouldn't believe how long it took!

Quite self explanatory really.... speech bubbles and googly eyes, but who do they belong too???
Let's open the card and see who's waiting in the darkness :)

Yep it's the animal menagerie!!

It was great to ink up this old stamp, which I've had for yonks , it's made by Rubbadubbadoo who I don't think are around anymore but I could be wrong, gotta love these wacky stamp company names - they probably sold out to Inkadinkado !!! Lol
I couldn't decide whether to add colour to the inside but then thought this black and white shading would look like the light spilling into a dark room so that's what I went with :)

So hope you have a great weekend... we are off to cause havoc and mayhem in the bowling alley later and James is hyper excited about it :)

STRRRRIKE !!!!

Jenny x

Happy Birthday Sheep Sixteen!!

Morning everyone...

It was James's birthday yesterday, he turned the big 16 which, is a little recognised  milestone birthday these days but when it comes to James, I think these teenage birthdays are always a wonder to me and constant reminder of the widening gap between him and his peers!!  At sixteen he stands 6' 3" tall with size 12 feet and still loves nothing more than sitting sucking his thumb engrossed in a children's programme aimed at 6-7 yr olds or helping load and oversee the workings of the washing machine!

So what to put on a card for him that will catch his attention for longer than three seconds?.. I decided on using a set of Stamps that I won as blog candy from the lovely Lynn a few months ago, because they look like a couple of characters from Shaun the Sheep... one of his many favourites :)

Here's a link to a you tube video in case you haven't met this little chap before and as you can see, or may know, they're a cheeky bunch of characters so thought it only right that they should be up to mischief on the card and have taken a bite from the aperture :)

I took a risk with the spelling of 'birthday' because James is a stickler for things being right but it seemed to suit with him and he appreciated the pun in this instance!

He had a lovely mini party at school, they always make a fuss of their birthdays and then Nannie and Grandad where here after school and stayed for a birthday tea so the perfect day as far as he was concerned :)
We are bowling at the weekend with four of his friends from school which will also be a family outing because he can't go alone and he's really looking forward to it..... not many parents of 16 year olds can say that can they!!!

So here's to another year of ups and downs and decisions about the future.... yep life is quite interesting with James but his friendly nature and chatty character always shine through, giving us the privilege of an insight to how he sees life and actually I think his world is better than ours most of the time!!!

Thanks for your visit, hope you have a great day :)

Jenny X 

The Lovebirds!

Well hello fellow crafter's, are you intrigued by the title?.... then read on :)
I have two more cards for the Clean and Simple card class and the first one is also for Less is More this week which is a one layer card and must feature 'Birds'. Now for the love bit..... at the weekend we received the exciting news that our nephew and his girlfriend have got engaged so this helped me to decide on a theme for my birdie card :)

Yes I got inky for this card so something a little different for me, this technique was from day 5 of card class and used Distress inks and the blender tool with a little water added for a watercolour effect. The birds and branch are embossed first using Versafine  tuxedo black and clear EP on Watercolour card which was quite nerve-wracking as Versafine dries quickly at the best of times without the help of super absorbent card!!!
I hope Mandi and Chrissie don't mind the branch floating on the card, I added a second for good measure!

I'm also entering this into Barbles challenge at Kinsale Creations... I've been thinking along the lines of silhouette birds so LIM came along at the right time :)

This second card is an idea I've had for a few days and is a mid month reminder for the 'New Year, New Start' challenge at St Luke's Charity Card Challenge

It just so happens that today's class is to make your own embellishments whilst keeping it CAS ...they must have read my mind!!

I've used a chipboard circle (thick card packaging) and some blue cellophane (Christmas wrapping) to make a sweet and stamped a sentiment through an aperture in the front for the sentiment inside and out :)
The twine is a great design idea from class so I had to try that too :)

We'd love to see you join in the challenge over at St Luke's... you can recycle anything on your card that was destined for the bin, it doesn't have to be left over from Christmas!

Right best get the first card written and ready to post tomorrow.... looking forward to a family wedding, not had one for a few years now....wonder if they need someone to make the invites????

Thanks for your visit I really appreciate your comments :)

Jenny X

Still here!!!

So sorry for the long silence everyone...... I just had to loop out of Blogland to get things done, last week was so manic!!! I will be able to catch up gradually over the Christmas period :)

I missed last weeks Less is More challenge even though I had good intentions to join in... ho hum.
This weeks  MUSIC  theme just happens to fit nicely with one of Christmas card designs for this year so I thought I would enter it..... you'll see it's very CAS, that's this years go to style on the Christmas cards..... quicker to make :)

The carol singers are a small stamp by amuse that I've had ages and the sentiment is a Kirsty Wiseman design by Personnel Impressions...... due to the size of the stamp the card is only 3 inch sq, I like the little cards :)

So we are on the final countdown now and both my two are done with school until January. Hannah had her two interviews at Oxford University last week and she really enjoyed the whole experience...... hard to gauge how she did but we've not long to wait as the letters get sent out before Christmas. Whatever happens, she has made some great new friends and experienced something only a  few get a chance to do :)

I hope to be back this week to share some little sweetie gift bags I made for James's class staff and friends, but that's all for today as I have to go and collect the car from the garage now and get my Christmas cards in the post :)

Thanks for looking
Jenny X

A Bit of Bling!

Hello again

Another week closer to Christmas..... and I think the blog posts will continue to be a bit thin on the ground on the run up to Christmas as family life seems to go into overdrive but I can never resist the weekly challenge at Less is More :)

This week's theme is  'A Bit of Bling' and the perfect reason to roll out another Christmas card!!

Just some simple paper piecing with a Magenta stamp this week and some red bling to the middle tree, these were silver/clear gems that I coloured with a Promarker, as for some reason I have no red gems approaching the Christmas season!!!
The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and the oval is an a.muse stamp. Hope you like it :)

My other exciting news is that last week Hannah had an email confirming her interview at Oxford University which is such exciting news and something she wasn't expecting after sitting a really difficult Thinking Skills Assessment. Whilst it does not mean an offer to study at Oxford is certain, not by a long chalk with 14 people for three places!, she has at least got a toe in the door and will be able to experience a piece of Oxford life when she stays for one or two days at the college for her interview in a couple of weeks time :)
We are so proud of her to get through to the interviews..... she is such a hard-worker and knows what she wants from life so I'm sure this will shine through in her interview, whatever happens I've no doubt she'll get to do what she wants to do in the future :)

I also just wanted to say how humbled I am to receive 71 comments on my silhouette card, especially when I thought I had ruined it by inking in the long shadows!! Thank you so much for all your lovely comments, that's a blog record for me :)

Right back to the usual Monday madness.... I'm going to be the hunter gatherer of the house this morning at the supermarket!! I'll  try and sneak out while the ironing pile isn't looking ;)

Thanks for popping by X

A Leafy Colour Trend!

Things happen in threes don't they say,  and my skeleton leaf stamp has never known the use it has had recently so you won't be surprised to see it make an appearance again today for the challenge at Embellish Colour  Trends challenge which has the theme of 'leaves' as well.

I basically used the stamp to make my own patterned paper using Adirondack ink-pads and clear embossing on Versamark to make the tone on tone leaves which have a lovely shiny appearance too.... not possible to catch that on camera :)

A simple button and twine ensemble with a tiny tab sentiment and all done.... the best thing is that I stamped out a whole A4 sheet of leafy goodness so I have some left to play with on other cards too :)

Supplies :  Skeleton Leaf (Impression Obsession), Adirondack Ink ( Plum, Denim, Lettuce and Mushroom), Versamark, Clear embossing powder, Denim Twine and Button from stash

Today in the UK is Children in Need day which is a Charity fundraiser spearheaded by the BBC to raise funds for projects in the UK that support and help dis-advantaged children for whatever reason that may be. Having a child with Autism we like to support the cause and the schools always make it a fun day for the children...... usually based around a non uniform day and this year they are wearing spots so I decided to make a Pudsey Bear to sew onto one of James's t-shirts and he's thrilled with it

I'm certainly no sewing expert and this is mainly stuck with fabric glue, but it was great fun to make and James is wearing it with pride..... what I should have done was sponsor him to keep Pudsey clean at school dinner time!!!

Hope you have a great day and add your pennies or pounds to the pot if you can :)

Thanks for looking , I really appreciate your comments and read every single one X