The Other Side Of Me

Hello all, It's a bit nippy, isn't it?  We haven't had a lot of snow, though, fortunately.   I've had a week off work and I've been packing, but also doing loads of french and getting some cards made. In January the card swap group challenge was to use a definite shape on your card, like a square, rectangle, circle, etc.  As it turned out, the majority of people went for hexagons in one way or another and they were all fabulous. This is the card I made for Michelle: I've used Pool Party and Lucky Limeade, with some of the lovely Fresh Vintage paper. I can't believe I've still got some of that in my stash. It's been absolute ages since I made one of these cards and it's silly really because they're very easy and fun to make. The whole piece of Lucky Limeade cardstock measures 28cm x 11 cm.  I scored at 7cm from either end and folded it over.  I cut two pieces of matching dsp at 10.5cm x 6.5cm and stuck them to both flaps.  Then I cut...

I made a card for a resident who's birthday is on St Patrick's Day.  Here we are:   I started off with a Lucky Limeade base (it had to be green, didn't it?)  I've been wanting to play with a couple of embossing folders that I have that you would place over a card.  Now I can do this without creasing the surrounding cardstock I just had to have a go. The other thing is that I've just got a new set of Sizzix dies in tag shapes.  I cut a piece of Fresh Vintage dsp in the Lucky Limeade and Pool Party colour, then drew around the same die and cut it out, to make a border.  I popped it on, lined up straight at the top.  Then it was just a case of using up a few Pool Party scraps to make butterflies (I actually have a drawer full of these in lots of different colours and sizes).  Et voilà Back soon, I'm sure Happy crafting! Jane xx

I've been keeping a journal since the summer.  I've always kept a diary but I've wanted to add illustrations for ages.  I've just had to wait for the perfect book to use.  This is actually a sketch book from W H Smith. It's part smash book, part diary, part art journal.  I'm very pleased with a lot of the pages And then occasionally one turns out to be a total disaster! Okay, it started out well, went down hill rapidly and then I dropped a stamp on it and didn't know how to cover it up! And all the while, I kept seeing articles and pictures on Pinterest about Project Life.  At first I didn't even understand what it was, but I've gradually put two and two together and decided I really like it.  Anyone who likes scrapbooking is bound to, really.  Then it took ages to find out if anyone stocks the stuff in the UK (Hobbycraft as it turns out.  Probably others).  And then I looked at the price! There's no way, with all th...

I'm so sorry I've just realised the quality of this photo isn't all that great, I seem to have a smudge on my lense, but I just wanted to show you the card I made for this month's swap group.  I've been wanting to make a joyfold card for ages, and actually received one as part of my swaps last month and this made me even more keen to make one.  I found a very good tutorial on Splitcoast and was away. I decided not to use a picture for my central piece, but the sentiment that comes from the Faith In Nature set.  This is the first time I've ever used it. It was one of those cards where you're not really sure if it's going to fit into a standard size envelope as you're making it and you have visions of having to make a special envelope to fit it, and heave a sigh of relief when you've finished and it goes into a normal envelope - phew! I added all my pieces of cardstock onto a Soft Suede base and used a stamp to help keep it closed. Here is a ...

Well, can you believe it?  I think this is my fourth year in blogland!  Doesn't time fly?!  I started out just wanting to keep a diary of my antics on the farm, then started this blog to keep my crafting separate as it grew and took on a life of its own, and it's become very important to me. Now I must apologise as the first thing I'm going to do is show you a card I made for one of the residents just before Christmas, but I've seen the picture and the quality is dreadful.  I'm afraid I didn't notice when I took the picture and now of course, the card is long gone to the recipient.  Anyway, this is the card in question: Actually, it doesn't look that bad now I've uploaded it.  I saw this on Pinterest and traced it back to Marla Reed's blog  and would like to thank her for the inspiration.  You know when you buy something new from SU! and it automatically becomes your favourite thing ever ?  Well that's how I feel about these embosse...

Oh boy, have I been having fun.  This is the card I made last week for my youngest daughter.  I got a bit carried away... All I knew was that I wanted to make an easel card where the centre piece was this fancy square shape.  The card I'd seen that inspired me looked nothing like this! I started with the Spellbinder die (if you have the Top Note die it will be perfect) and cut some of this beautiful Everyday Enchantment dsp.  It contains Poppy Parade and Soft Suede, so I combined them on the butterfly at the top and stamped one of the sentiments from the butterfly set.  Then I went to town a bit on the inside, look: I've used the Fresh Vintage stamp set (retired) and stamped all around the edge.  But of course my favourite bit is the Four Frames stamp at the bottom, with the little birds from the Clearly For You stamp set, how sweet is that?  But I wasn't finished there.  I recently looked on You Tube for a video on how to make a post-it n...

Oh my, two posts in one day, what is going on?!  This is how it began: I keep seeing cards using the triple time stamping technique.  Dawn Olchefske has a fabulous video here .  I plunged in with a card for one of the residents, have a look: The colours here are Early Espresso and Crumb Cake. BUT then I saw this week's Dynamic Duos blog challenge, which is to use Always Artichoke and Certainly Celery.  I was so struck by the cards made by the design team, as I have never used my Always Artichoke card stock.  I instantly knew what I wanted to do, and here it is: The overall card is only 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" but it fits in a C6 envelope.  You can see the technique for yourself on the video, it's very clever.  I have used a flourish background stamp in Certainly Celery, then the flower from the Fresh Vintage stamp set, and stacked the Whisper White cards one on top of the other and stamped away, first the sentiment, then the flourish, then the flo...

I knew  it was Joan's birthday coming up so I decided to ask her about it.  She said she would be 80, which is fine, but later in the conversation she said she was born in 1922.  Now maths is not my strong point, but I lay in bed that night going over and over it and still coming up with 90!  So I went in the next day and my manager asked if I could make a 90th birthday card for Joan.  Phew, my maths isn't that bad then.  I'm already at the stage where I'm beginning to forget how old I am, so I totally understand! I knew straight away what I wanted to make, and here it is: This is the first time I've cut into this beautiful sheet of 12x12" dsp from the Everyday Enchantment set. Technically the red on the paper is Poppy Parade (goodbye sweet love, sob!) but I stamped the image (from Fresh Vintage)  in Real Red and it looks a complete match.  The 'white' is actually Very Vanilla, which is the background for the dsp, so I've carried that through...

Hello there!  I hope you've managed to have a peaceful and relaxing Easter weekend, with family and friends.  We've been busy getting the house in shape, seeing to the horses and shopping, but I've finally managed to take a couple of pics of my new craftroom, so here we are: To anyone else, this would be a dining room, but in our case I'm afraid eating plays second fiddle to crafting! (You've got to get your priorities right, haven't you?!) It's quite an experience having a whole room to use.  You'll probably remember my desk from a previous post.  The printer is plugged in next to it, and to the left of that are my clear boxes full of embellishments.  Here's my old desk: I've put my little texture boutique on here and the front of those stacking baskets is full of all my embossing folders.  Much better than rummaging through a drawer every time I need one. I'd like to show you the cupboard in the window, which is holding all my papers...

Hello everyone, welcome back. Do you ever find, as crafters, that you've slipped into meeting deadlines with your card-making and have very little time to just play?  I know when I started out I did a lot more playing than I do now, so I decided this week that I was just going to play with paper and ink and it didn't matter what I made as long as I'd had fun and spent time with some of the new stamps and cardstock that I have. The other thing is that I've wanted to make something to mark St Patrick's Day ever since I started crafting, but it's pointless making a card because I haven't got anyone to give it to. Then I saw this inspirational sketch at Mojo Monday, a challenge blog I've been following for a while: I decided to use it as a basis to make a plaque for St Patrick's Day.  Here it is: I cut a piece of corrugated card 5x7 and covered it with one of the green papers from the Papermania verde collection.  I wrapped it round and stuc...

Hello, dear Blogfriends!  Let me start by saying a big thankyou for all your kind comments regarding the mammogram.  I am delighted to say there is nothing sinister going on, it turns out I have cysts (a lot more than I realised!) which is a major relief.  I have been sick with worry, as you can imagine.  So sick, in fact, I couldn't make it to craft class on Wednesday, which I never miss, so that shows you how bad I've been. I did have a really lovely day on Monday with the local WI who hosted a craft day.  Everybody took along something they were working on (in my case, cross stitch) and we had a wonderful lunch together.  I decided to walk home to burn off some calories! I decided to send the hostess a little thankyou note, so this is what I made: This stamp is from the Fresh Vintage set, and I really love it.  I totally understand that people are using this stamp a lot to go with the Everyday Enchantment paper, and rightly so, as they...

Hi all! It's been a bit of a wild and wacky weekend here, which is why I haven't had a chance to pop a card on until today.  It was hard to choose my favourite of the cards we made last week at our craft group, but in the end I've plumped for this one: Every so often a card comes along that you keep on your desk for ages and don't really want to give to anyone, and this is definitely one of those (I am basically a very mean person!) The dsp is the Everyday Enchantment set, which is beautiful.  It's one of those where you want a set to use and a set to gaze at! The cardstock is Lucky Limeade and the little oval is Calypso Coral, which has been put through the oval Textured Impressions EF.  We've added a little lace and stamped the greeting from the Curly Cute set.  Have a look at a close up: The stamped image is from a retired set (you know the one I mean!) which I stamped using my Stamp-a-ma-jig (which may be called a SAMJ from now on, it's a bit of a m...