The Other Side Of Me

Hello folks!  It feels truly bizzare to be making Christmas cards in this last bit of heat, but needs must.  Here is a card I've been working on for some friends at church: This little image (from Little Claire Designs) is going to be perfect for all my church cards this year.  I'm challenging myself to see how many different ways I can use it.  I do love an opportunity to get the embossing gun out and I was curious to see what this would look like without being coloured in.  I'm very pleased with the result.  Working from the base upwards, I've used kraft card, which you can't see until you open it, then a sheet of dark blue from a set which has something to do with Forever Friends, but I can't remember the name of it.  Next I've taken some white card stock and stamped on it with the music stamp from LOTV in green ink.  Then I've torn the sheet with the holly on at an angle in two corners and stuck that on, and finished off with the stampe...

A couple of weeks' ago we went to some friends' pearl wedding anniversary celebrations.  Afterwards I realised it was the perfect opportunity to make a nice thankyou card.  This is what I made: Having made the cards for church recently, I've realised I love the A6 size of card (half an A5 for those of you who aren't sure).  It's quite small, but gives lovely proportions to whatever I make.  I'm also loving 5x7 cards as I think A5 is too big.  So everything's being scaled down lately! For this card I distressed the whole surface, then stamped with my letter stamp in Marina Mist.  I made a tag and distressed it, then went around the edges with a lovely chocolate brown ink.  The image is a stickeroo from Penny Black, and so is the butterfly.  It's so thin and beautiful it feels like it's stamped, it's fabulous.  These sheets of stickers are so beautiful and such good value, I'll definitely be buying some more.  I've put a bit of gard...

Hello everyone, I hope you're having a good start to your week.  It's glorious sunshine here, so I'm going to make the most of it. I have been busy crafting though.  This is what I made yesterday: I got the idea from Kimber McGray's book, '175 Fresh Card Ideas'.  I love every card in there!  The card she made was much smaller than this, though.  This is my first go with pins, which you can see stuck in the ribbon at the top.  The ducks on here are so cute. Recipe: Card Stock: So Saffron from SU Papers: October Afternoon - Ducks In A Row Pins: Wild Orchid Crafts My local craft shop is closing down, which I think is terrible, but they've got 30% off at the moment.  What is a girl to do?  Obviously I had to have a bit of a spree, and bought the ribbon for this card, amongst other things.  I've also just had a delivery of Stampin Up! goodies, but I think that will be it now until after Christmas.  Time to make the most of what I've got, ...

I've been busy, peeps.  (I'm sure you have, too!)  I am keeping on with the Christmas cards, here's the latest: I've often seen cards like this and have really wanted to have a go.  Then, earlier in the week I found a template on a fabulous blog here .  Thanks so much, Connie Babbert.  Don't be alarmed if you make it and think it's really small, as it's only 4 1/2 inches across the bottom.  Connie's card looks big in her photo.  You'll need to look at her photo to work out which are valley and which are mountain folds.  I played about with it on a piece of scrap paper first, just to make sure I'd got it right.  It's a lot easier than you think.  The permutations are endless.  You can use a tall, slim stamp or just use the rectangular section to put a topper in any shape you like, as I've done here with the snowman on an oval base.  You could put a narrow sentiment all the way along the bottom, you could put a tag in the...

Continuing my love affair with kraft card, this is what I made yesterday: I love the clean, simple look of this kind of card. I love red with kraft card. Hope you like it! Recipe: stamps: freebie from Pink Petticoat in a magazine ink: Memento black Papers: October Afternoon Thrift Shop (again!) Embellies: 3 gems from Wild Orchid Crafts P.S. After reading Linda's comment below, I have decided to pluck up the courage to enter this card at the Less Is More Challenge .  It is my all-time favourite challenge.  I follow it faithfully, but have never had the nerve to enter it, but as their aim is to get to 1000 entries this time I think I'll put mine in.  Obviously most of their cards are white, but I've had a look and a few of them are coloured this time, so I may as well have a go, don't you think? Thanks for dropping by today.  Jane

Good morning everyone, I hope you had a good weekend.  Ours was hectic as usual.  I had a sale of my cards at church yesterday and I'm thrilled to say I made £30 to go towards the work of our scheme for helping the homeless, called 'MAD' which stands for 'Make A Difference.'  I am thrilled to have been able to make a contribution, and even picked up a couple of commissions, so it was very exciting.  I got lots of lovely compliments on my cards, too.  So a good day, all in all. Onto my card for today: Autumn is my favourite season, so if I can get away with using autumn colours in a card, I will!  This is my first go with my new bird die from Marianne Creatables.  I've just backed it onto a white oval and used orange bazzil card and a sheet of paper from the orange Papermania set. Here's a close-up of the sentiment: I've used my new Four Frames die and stamp from Stampin Up! but I've used an orange Promarker to stamp it out, as proof to everyone i...

It doesn't take much to make me happy.  A new set of stamps is guaranteed to do the trick.  I've been playing with my Clearly For You set from Stampin Up!  This is what I've made: This card makes such good use of all the stamps in the set.  I've used my Marina Mist card stock and ink again.  I am using a lot of 5"x7" cardstock lately.  It's not as big as A5 and I really love it.  Here's a close-up of the little birds.  Aren't they cute?  I love birds on cards anyway, but these are so sweet.  This is my flower.  I used my Marianne Designs die, which I love, but cut a normal circle out and inked it, then added a gem for the centre.  I am so pleased with the results. It's been a busy week, but I've made quite a few cards, so hopefully I'll get some time over the weekend to put a few more on for you. Thanks for dropping by. Jane xx

Hello there folks!  Well the wind has died down so I'm off outside in a minute (to clear up the debris!) but before I do I thought I'd show you a card I made on Monday. This card is very similar to the one in the Stampin Up! minibook.  I've got the stamps and couldn't wait to have a go.  I got quite nervous as I haven't got much card, only two pieces in each colour, and didn't want to ruin it, but plunged right in. First I embossed the top of the card with a polka dot embossing folder, which you can't really see.  Then I stamped the cute little birds inside one of my Four Frames stamps and set it to one side.  Next I stamped the strip with my Penny Black letter stamp and inked it with Tim Holtz Old Paper distress ink.  Then I drew an oval on a piece of white card and tore it out.  I inked round the edges with Broken China ink.  I drew just inside it on my card and then stamped the blackberry stamp in Marina Mist which is the same colou...

Hello there!  Isn't it windy?  We are certainly feeling the side effects of Hurricane Katia here!  It's the perfect opportunity to batten down the hatches, grab a stash of coffee and biscuits and huddle up at the crafting table.  Here's what I've been working on: This card makes me realise how far I've come, as it was last Christmas that I really started to get to grips with card making and started to understand what could be done.  But I didn't have kraft card back then, I didn't have this stamp and I didn't even have my Bigshot so I couldn't have cut out the circles with the letters on.  But one year later, I am able to put a card like this together, completely from my own imagination, and I am thrilled! I started out with the red/green/brown colour combo in my head, which was something I fell in love with last year.  The reindeer is by Little Claire's Designs and I love him.  I bought him at the Summer Crafting event I went to and have been ...

We can't be the only people in life that start preparing for Christmas this early, can we?  I know some of you started making Christmas cards for challenges the minute the new year started, so technically I am quite behind.  But it's hard to feel festive when the sun is shining. Anyway, I've decided to knuckle down and got all my Christmas card making stuff out of the drawer and spread it out on my kitchen table.  All I can say is, 'what a lot I've got!'  This threw me completely, so I decided to start by writing a list of recipients, which made life a lot easier.  I need a person in mind when I make cards. So this is the first one, to my sister and brother in law: It's actually on kraft card, which you can't see until you open it, but the colours go really well together.  The papers are MME but they're free, with the chipboards, from Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine and they're beautiful.  I'll probably use every bit of it.  The button ...

It is my eldest daughter's birthday at the end of this month, and my grandson's just before that, so I thought I'd better get a move on.  I hate being caught out at the last minute. I've finally sourced some Kraft card and I am in love with it.  I knew I would be.  You know you see pics in magazines and blogs and think, 'I could make that, if only I had...'  Well, here's my first ever play with it:  My daughter's obviously going to be 30, hence the numbers in brown Memento ink.  I've rounded off the corners, which I'm doing on most of my cards these days, I've noticed.  The papers are October Afternoon (Thrift Shop) and I've cut the sentiment out with my Sizzix die.  You can't see it very well, so here's a close-up: Kraft card is very rough and ready compared to normal card (they don't tell you that in magazines, do they?) but it's beautiful stuff to work with. It goes very well with red cardstock and papers. You can c...

I've just found out the style of cardmaking I like has a name!  Honestly, I must be a bit thick (don't answer that!)  Anyway, it's shabby chic.  I've found some very good, inspiring blogs and the penny has dropped.  I'll probably never give up stamping and colouring, but love the shabby chic style.  Bizarrely, at the opposite end of the spectrum, I love clean and simple cards and tend to swing between the two.  Oh well, as long as I'm happy! This is the first notebook I've made: I'm not even sure where this book came from but it's been in my drawer for ages.  It has plain paper in it and I'm going to use it for art journaling.  I will put a title on the pink panel when I think of something suitable, but the old brain won't co-operate at the moment! I've seen an inspiring scrapbook page recently, with what the author describes as 'an embellishment sneeze' on it!  I was in hysterics as I totally understood what she meant (it was...

Well I went to the new craft class on Wednesday night, and had a fantastic time.  We made three things, so here they are: The first one is this lovely calendar page for September.  They've made one for each month this year apparently.  I'm not sure if the stamp is by Stampin Up! (SU from now on, I think!) but the paper certainly is, and the punch design at the top is Martha Stewart.  I've never used one of hers before and was really impressed. Here's a card we made: Can you tell it's SU, just from looking at it?  It's dawned on me that they don't really use white cardstock and they don't stamp in black and colour it in like most other companies.  They stamp in the coloured ink that works best with the image and use a wide range of coloured card stock.  We used a ribbler to get the corrugated effect on the card, it was really easy.  And finally: The photo doesn't show the glitter on this card really, it's very pretty.  The card colour i...

I haven't used this stamp for ages, but think it's very sweet.  I wanted to make one last card for the church sale, and here it is: I am aware that when you use an embossing folder, the card that is embossed is a certain size but I wanted to make a 6"x6" card.  You can see the card is embossed on the left but it doesn't reach all the way over to the right.  I put the torn piece of patterened paper across the bottom which hides most of it, but the blank bit at the top was an excellent place for some card candy.  Of course I coloured the image with my Promarkers on the most wonderful card which I buy at Little Claire's Designs.  It's truly beautiful stuff for stamping and colouring, the pens glide across the top of it.  I've attached some ribbon on the left side and there we are. So now it's Christmas cards all the way, especially as I've just got my latest Cardmaking Making and Papercraft magazine and the papers and chipboards in there are st...