Diamond Wedding Anniversary

It is was my Grandparents 60th wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago, such a big occasion couldn't go by with out a card! I think my card will be out shone a little by the one from the Queen...but I'm OK with that :)

I trawled the internet for ideas for a diamond wedding card but couldn't find anything I liked.  In the end I decided to adapt a wedding card that I had made earlier in the year.  Pretty much everything on the card are from things I've been given or saved from various things, I love it when you can find a good use for them!

Supplies:

Embossing folder - D'vine Swirls, Cuttlebug

Number Dies - Memory Box

Sentiment - "Congratulations" found via Google images and printed

Everything else from my stash

I'm hoping to make a start on my Christmas cards soon, so hopefully I'll have lots to share with you in the next few weeks.

Jacqui x

Butterfly Thank You Notelets

Today I'm sharing with you these super quick notelets.  Even though they're quick I think they're quite sweet.  It's a design I've used previously for birthday cards but I've scaled it down here.

I added some pearls to the "body" of the central butterfly to add some interest and to make it feel a bit more special.

Sorry about the appalling light, I can definitely tell winter is on the way as it has been so dark here today!

Jacqui x


Supplies:
Card - Dovecraft 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" 240 gsm white cards and envelopes
           Core d'inations "darks"
Pearls - Vivi Gade 2mm white
Stamp - Craft Impressions "Thank you"
Ink - Momento "Tuxedo Black"

One For A Friend

This is a card I made for a friend's birthday.  She isn't an uber girly girl so I kept it simple without lots of embellishments.  The cut out butterflies are simply cut out and then raised on foam pads to add some dimension.

Thanks for visiting!

Jacqui x


Supplies:
1" Butterfly punch - Hobbycraft
Patterned Paper - Dovecraft "Garden Party" Stack
Card from my stash

Little Thank You's

I made these little thank-you cards a couple of weeks ago for my husband to give to family but I never got round to sharing them.  As a needed to make a few I wanted something really simple and fairly quick to make.  I had just bought some 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" Dovecraft card bases in a local craft shop which are a perfect size for thank-you notelets.

This is also the first outing for some brads that I bought, I remember using brads in school but had seen them on a few cards around blogland so thought I'd give them a whirl - I quite like them.  I think they make the cards seem a bit more masculine.

Jacqui x

Supplies:
Card base - Dovecraft - 240 gsm 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" white cards and envelopes
Coloured card - Core 'dinations cardstock "Darks"
Brads - Bringing Crafts-Too You - "Vintage brads"
Stamp - Crafty Impressions "Thank You"
Ink - Memento - Tuxedo Black

CAS(E) This Sketch #48

I haven't played along with CAS(E) this sketch for a while, but I needed to make a card for my husbands Grandma and was severely lacking ideas.  As soon as I saw the sketch I knew exactly what I wanted to do! - sign of a good sketch if you ask me =)

Here's what I came up with:

I have very limited ink colours to choose from so that pretty much dictated what colour the flowers were going to be, so I chose the rest of the colour theme based on the flowers.  I initially made the card without the ribbon and it looked really plain.

This is the sketch that I based my design on:

That's all from me today.  I'm hoping to find some more time for crafting soon so will be back on a more regular basis again.

Thanks!

Jacqui x

Supplies:
Stamps - Clearly Besotted Stamps "You Are", Personal Impressions - Everyday Words Happy Birthday.
Ink - Memento - Black, Lilac Posies, Versa Color - Orchid
Embossing folder - Cuttlebug "Simple Flowers"
Paper, ribbon and rhinestones from stash

Wedding Anniversary

Sorry I haven't posted in a while but we were away on holiday for a couple of weeks, it was so good to get away after having a hectic couple of months.  Anyway the card I have to share with you is an anniversary card.  It was our 3rd wedding anniversary earlier in the month, and this is the card I made to give to my hubby.  I always find anniversary cards for men hard to make - trying to find a balance between getting across the sentiment of love without being really girly.  Here's my card:

I saw the below card on Pinterest and decided to use the elements of it in my card.  I wanted to use a heart as the cut out shape, and due to a lack of a die I printed out a heart shape and cut it out using my craft knife, after assembling them together I stuck it on using foam pads to add some dimension.  The circle shape I free cut from card and coloured paper.  I stuck the strips of coloured paper to a piece of paper and then onto the card base.  The sentiment I printed directly onto the card.  To finish it off I couldn't resist a few rhinestones!

Inspiration:

Jacqui x

Swirly Wedding

This is a card I made last week for a wedding we went to yesterday.  It really was a gorgeous day, perfect couple, fantastic venues and a truly enjoyable day.  As I've said before, I seem to have made lots of wedding cards recently so when I was trying to come up with an idea I trawlled Pinterest (love Pinterest!), and found a card that I wanted to CASE. 

The bridesmaid dresses at the wedding were a dusky pink colour so I dug in my stash and found some pearlescent pink card and pink rhinestones to go with the theme.  I didn't have a ribbon that would work so I used a strip of card instead.  For the sentiment I found the "Congratulations" on Google images and then added the other wording myself.

This is my card:

And this is the card I found on Pinterest, which is from this Blog:

I (think) that's our last wedding of the year, so there may be a lull in the wedding card making at least for a while!

Thanks for visiting!

Jacqui x














I bought the Cuttlebug "d'vine swirls" embossing folder specifically for this card, but I love it so I think I'll make good use of it. 

Baby Boy's Christening

I was asked to make a Christening card a while ago, and the card I made I've never got round to sharing...so here it is!

It is based on a design that was found on the internet, but I'm afraid I've lost the link!

I drew the church shape by hand and cut it out of coordinating Boofle papers, it looked really plain without the black lining so I carefully drew around the edge with a marker.  The sentiment I printed directly onto the card.

All of the other drawing I did freehand using a fine liner, except the stars which I drew myself some stencils.

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend.  I have been busy busy but have managed to sqeeze in making a couple of cards - I'll share them once I've given them to their recipients!

Jacqui x

Dad's Birthday

It’s my Dad’s birthday on Monday, so of course a card was called for! (I’m not sure he’s ever found my blog so I’m pretty sure it’s safe to share).  I took inspiration from CAS(E) this sketch #38…but I missed submitting it to the challenge as Blogger was playing up last night. Never mind!

I bought some more core’ dinations cardstock that arrived this week, so I grabbed this! I’ve used card from both the “brights” and “dark” sets.  For a coordinating card I cut up the folder that I received my graduation certificate in – thanks University of Southampton, great colour choice =) I stuck the strips I’d cut directly onto the card using some trusty Pritt Stick.  The sentiment and shape I printed onto card and cut out, I stuck it to the card using foam squares.  I finished off with a little detailing with the enamel dots.

Hopefully he’ll like it!

Hope you’re all looking forward to the weekend…we’re moving house on Monday so I have a weekend of cleaning ahead of me!...hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze in some more card making at some point.

Jacqui x

Butterfly Wedding

I seem to have made absolutely loads of wedding cards this year, I have been to a few weddings myself but was also asked to make a few for one of my best friends to give at wedding she was going to.  Because I've made so many I turned to pinterest to get some ideas as mine had well and truly run out! I found this card, which I thought was lovely.

I wanted to CASE the card, but don't own a heart die, I wasn't going to let that stop me! I found a heart shape on the internet, printed it on card so I could use it to draw around and then cut it out using my craft knife.  The heart isn't perfect but it could be worse! Here's my card:

The backing card is from core'dinations, I absolutely love the texture of this card, it's the only colour I have at the moment but I think that will soon change!  The butterfly I wanted to be the same colour as the surround, but it looked so boring just plain...I reached for the trusty glossy accents and I'm happy with it now!

Thanks for visiting today, hope you all have exciting weekends planned!

Jacqui x

Supplies:
Card - from stash, and Purple Majesty by Core 'dinations
Gems - from stash
Butterfly Punch - Hobbycraft 2"
Sentiment - Printed from Microsoft Word

Spotty flower

I wanted to submit another entry into the Clearly Besotted Challenge #2, but I seem to have limited "spotty" things to craft with.  In my last entry I used the centres of the flowers from the CBS "You Are" set, here I am using them again but for their intended purpose!

I was half way through making my card and then realised that the card I was making was turning out a lot like a card I saw on the Lime Doodle Design blog, so I have CASE'd Debby's design from looking at it a few weeks ago...it clearly had a lasting impression on me!

I have raised the flower up on foam pads, and then also raised the centre of the flower on foam pads.  The dark colour behind is aubergine, even though it looks almost black in the photo.

Hope you've all had a lovely day.

Jacqui x

Supplies:
Card base - Craft UK 5 x 7" 250gsm white card
Flower Stamp - You Are by Clearly Besotted Stamps
Sentiment - Everyday Words Happy Birthday
Ink - Versa Color Orchid, Memento Lilac Posies and Tuxedo Black
Coloured paper from my stash

Boofle Thanks

I told you I'd be making the most of being stuck indoors!...two posts in one day.

I got some lovely gifts from my parents and my in-laws for my graduation, and I was so pleased that they came to my ceremony that I wanted to write them a little note to thank them. 

My sister bought me a Boofle card making set a little while ago, up until now I had only used some of the card bases but I thought a thank you note lent itself nicely to the Boofle design.  Below is what I came up with...



The sentiment on the brown card is a digi stamp from Pink Petticoat, I found the site a little while ago and absolutley love it.  I gave in and bought the "thank you sentiments" and this is their first outing!  I printed the sentiment onto card and cut around it after drawing a pretty label shape.

They're both simple designs but I'm pleased with how they turned out.  It's the first time I've used images like this that have been bought and I will be less scared of making something tacky looking in the future.

Green Card Supplies:
Card base and Rhinestone - Boofle Scrumptious Card Kit
Centre image - Boofle 6x6 Designstax
Ribbon - From my stash

Brown Card Supplies:
Card base and image- Boofle Scrumptious Card Kit
Ribbon - From my stash

Sentiment - Pink Petticoat

Pearls - Vivi Gade Designs

Ribbon - From my stash

I still have a wedding card I need to make for this weekend but I think that'll have to wait until tomorrow!

Thanks for dropping by.

Jacqui x

New Home

Today I have a card to share with you the I made for my sister and her gorgeous little family, who are moving into a new house today.  It's been a very long wait for them...they thought they'd be moving at the end of May but there have been lots of hold ups.  But today they'll be in, so I thought I'd send them a card to say "Yippee"!

Sorry the photo isn't great, I played around to try and get a better picture but alas I gave up.  Hopefully you can see in the close up that behind the cut out of the house is a map, which is of where they are moving to.  I got the idea of using maps in projects last summer when I was looking for ideas of what to give my husband for our second wedding anniversary.  I found framed cut outs of a heart with a map as the backing which could be personalised...the cost - £55! I decided I could do it myself quite easily and all in all did it for about £15 which even included buying an OS map to make sure the quality of the map was as good as could be. 

The map in this card I printed from the OS website "getamap", which is why the print is a bit pale.  The house I cut using my craft knife after drawing freehand, and the sentiment I printed onto card. I have raised up the kraft card on foam pads, as well as the sentiment to add some dimension.

I have the day off work today as I had a tummy bug over the weekend.  As I work in a hospital I'm not allowed to go back until Wednesday...I'm still feeling weak so going to make the most of sitting around and use the time to do some more crafting!

Jacqui x

CAS(E) this Sketch #37

Hi All! I have been a busy bee this weekend.  It was my PhD graduation ceremony on Friday which I got to celebrate with my lovely family and friends, it was a gorgeous day all round!

I just got time to make an entry for this weeks CTS challenge.  I bought a hexagon die a few weeks ago and I absolutely love it.  The hexagons are smaller than the ones in the sketch so to balance out the card I had to change it slightly.

Here's the sketch:

And Here's my card:

Supplies:
Paper - Garden Party by Dovecraft
Hexagon Die - Clearly Besotted Stamps
Sentiment - Everyday Words Happy Birthday by Personal Impressions
Pearls - Vivi Gade Designs
Card Base - White 5 x 7 by Craft UK

That's all from me today!

Jacqui x

Welcome Baby Boy

Hi all, I hope you are all enjoying the heat wave here in the UK! Not too fun having to work in an office where we have no air conditioning or windows, but it looks like it'll be staying nice over the weekend, whoop.  It's also my PhD graduation on Friday so it'll be nice to be able to be outside.

The card I have to share with you today is one I made a little while ago but I never got round to sharing.  It's similar in design to a card I previously posted...Clearly besotted challenge #1.  The central panel is raised up on foam pads which allowed me to wrap the twine around. The feet I stamped and then embossed with clear embossing powder to give them a smooth sheen.

Supplies:

Sentiment - "Baby" set by Kaisercraft
Feet - Personal Impressions
Ink - Tuxedo black from Memento and "Baby Blue" from Versa Color
Embossing powder - Papermania, Clear 
Card base - Boofle

Jacqui x

Graduation

One of my best friend's graduated this week as a doctor, much deserved after years of hard work and dedication, and she's having a party this evening to celebrate...so of course a card was required!

I searched the internet to try and get some inspiration for a doctor-themed graduation card but got absolutely nowhere.  I drew myself a sketch to include elements of "doctor" (stethoscope) and "graduation" (mortarboard), I also quite liked the idea of putting the year in there too.

I am not entirely happy with the card, I think its a bit boring...but it is what it is and I think she'll still like it.

The stethoscope and mortarboard I printed directly onto the card (my stamp collection doesn't stretch that far!).  I added enamel dots both the images to try add some detail, I also added glossy accents to the stethoscope to try and make it more interesting.

The 2013 I cut using numbers from Memory Box and the orange paper I embossed using Swiss Dots EF. I raised up the sentiment on foam pads to again try and make the card a bit more interesting which definitely helped.

That's all from me today. Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Jacqui x

Seeing Spots

Sorry for going quiet for a little while, it has been a busy week or so in our house! Had my in-laws staying with us at the weekend which was lovely but meant there was no time for blogging.

It is my sister-in-laws birthday next week so I wanted to make her a card.  I have also just bought the "You Are" stamp set from CBS, so I couldn't wait to use them.  I saw this weeks sketch on CAS(E) this sketch and instantly came up with the idea of what I wanted to do. 

Here is the sketch:

And here is my card:

I used what is meant to be the middle of the flowers to stamp the circles, following the same layout as the sketch.  I then added a glossy accents to a few of the circles to make them pop, I then couldn't resist adding a couple of pink enamel dots to finish it off. The sentiment I printed onto card, I am really lacking stamps for sentiments so I think this will have to be my next investment, I've also seen some gorgeous digi stamps at Pink Petticoat which I'm really tempted by too.

I'd like to enter this card into both the CTS #35 challenge but also the Clearly Besotted Challenge #2. 

Supplies:
Stamps - CBS "You Are"
Ink - Versa Color 34 Orchid and Memento Lilac Posies
Enamel Dot - My Mind's Eye "Cambridge Court"
Glossy Accents, Dovecraft pink twine

Thanks for visiting, please do leave a comment as I love reading them and getting some feedback.

Jacqui x

Freshly Made Sketches #92

It's my Mother-in-law's birthday next week so I wanted to make a card to give to her.  I was massively lacking any ideas but I stumbled across the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge Blog.  I'd not seen the blog before but as soon as I saw this weeks sketch I knew what I wanted to do, and the card below is the result!  It's a really lovely sketch.

Here's the sketch:

And here's my card:

I drew the wave shape of the flowery paper freehand and cut it out, then used the piece I'd cut off as a template to cut the thin strip (it's dark aubergine, although it looks almost black int he photo).  The sentiment I tried writing by hand and embossing but it looked awful so I resorted to printing it out and it looks much better.

Supplies:

Gemstones - from stash

Flowery Paper - Boofle

Pink paper - from stash and embossed using "Simple Flowers" from Cuttlebug

Card - From stash

It's a beautiful day here so I'm heading outside while there's still some sun.  Thanks for visiting!

Jacqui x



Fairy Jasmine

A few months ago I was lucky enough to win some Clearly Besotted Stamps via their facebook page.  I hadn't used them yet so thought it was about time to ink them up! They were all of very cute characters like the one I've used (Fairy Jasmine), sadly they are now discontinued.  I am going to enter this into the CBS challenge as entries are still open for a few more hours. 

I inked the image using momento ink in tuxedo black and then coloured in the image (admittedly I think I need more practice!).  The "3" I cut using  "Large Typewriter Number Set" from memory box on my Cuttlebug and finished using some Glossy Accents.  The paper is from the 6 x 6 Boofle stack, the stars are glittery but it's hard to tell from the photo.  I assembled it all using some foam pads.  The ribbon was from my stash (I think it was from a box of chocolates I got for my birthday!).

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend.  Mine was lovely but very busy, I'll definitely sleep well tonight!

Jacqui x

CTS #32 and CBS Challenge

I got home early enough today to take a photo of the card I made at the weekend before I lost all the light.  I based it on this weeks CAS(E) this sketch challenge, as soon as I saw the sketch I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do.  Here is the fabulous sketch:



I turned the sketch around to make my card, but hopefully you can see all of the elements in my design.

Everything was things I had in my stash.  The butterflies I cut out using 2" and 1" punches that I have, and the circle I cut using a 2" punch.  I added a little glossy accents to the "body" of the butterflies to add some interest.  The sentiment is printed directly onto the card as I didn't have a nice clean simple stamp for this which was the look I was going for.  The writing under the circle is from the background builder set from clearly besotted, so I'm also going to enter this into the challange that they are having at the moment.

I love entering these challenges, most definitly will be entering more of them.

As always, thanks for visiting!

Jacqui x

Christening Card

This is a card I made for my gorgeous little nephew.  I really struggled coming up with ideas for a Christening card but after a lot of trawling through Pinterest (love Pinterest!) I came up with this:

I drew and cut the little shapes by hand after Googling images to get some help.  The papers are all from the 6 x 6 Boofle stack and I think the colours work well for a baby boy. The bow I tied myself with a scrap of ribbon that luckily matched perfectly, I managed to do it after watching a video on YouTube on "how to tie tiny bows using a fork", I honestly don't think I would function without the internet! Sad but true!

That's all from me today.  I have made a card for this weeks CAS(E) this sketch challenge but I got home too late to photograph it...so hopefully I'll have another card to share tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting!

Jacqui x

Father's Day #2

The second card I made was in a different style.  I used papers from my stash, trying to pick my most "masculine" colours.  I added some interest to the blue paper by using the Swiss Dots embossing folder from Cuttlebug.  All of the cutting was done by hand except for the circle which I used a 2" punch to cut around a sentiment I had printed on my printer (lack of suitable stamps!).  I lifted the sentiment using foam pads to make it more of a focal point.

Hope you are enjoying celebrating Father's Day...unfortunately I won't see my Dad again for a few weeks but we can celebrate together then!  Thanks for visiting today. 

Jacqui x

Fathers Day #1

It's Father's Day today...so I have two cards to share with you as hopefully my Dad and my Father-in-law have both received their cards by now! I struggle with masculine cards, which is a common problem I think. 

For the first card I cut out the word "Dad" from card, and overlaid it over some stripes of different blue paper I has embossed using Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots folder.  I raised this on foam squares and left it at that, keeping it simple as usual!

Jacqui x