Sweet treats

Good evening, I hope you have all been enjoying the lovely weather today, it certainly has been a gorgeous day.

It was YeeTing's Stampin' Up class today and we made these two stunning cards, we all used stamps from the Apothecary Art set and I must admit, they truly are a joy to work with.

First up a tent fold aperture card

And this second card opened up like a folded gatefold, we made the ribbon rosettes too.

Thankyou once again for a lovely class YeeTing

Next up I have a super quick card that I put together last night with one of Tracy's toppers, you can see more of her lovely designs over at Cardmakers Delights, HERE.

I have to admit I normally like to stamp my images but these toppers are such lovely quality and a great idea for when you have little time or for when you are not in the mood to stamp and colour.

Thanks again Tracy.

I will bid you goodnight as I need to put the finishing touches to tomorrows scrapbooking class.

I may be back with some before and after photos over the weekend. As most of my family and friends know I have been working hard at the gym, I have taken up jogging and have also managed to lose over two stone in weight. I still have a way to go but I thought it might be encouraging to share how much progress I have made, still plucking up the courage to share though as the 'before's' are very scary ! I am not sure blog land is ready for such a fright !

Friends are flowers

As promised ( albeit a day later than promised) here are my journal pages and tag that I created for Lynn's circle journal.

The lettering was handcut from patterned paper, some of which I had altered with pen detailing or stamping

The flowers were stamped in acrylic paint and then painted in three different shades, the sentiment stamp on the tag above is a Tim Holtz one that I stamped in black archival ink and then highlighted with a white gel pen

A close up of the yummy texture of the acrylic paint, the background was created with a first layer of spray inks, which was dry-brushed with gesso, then glimmer misted in mocha, then I used a mask to create the hexagon detailing with chocolate ink and finally the diamond pattern was stamped in black ink, before the flowers were painted and the lettering was added. I finished with some tiny mulberry flowers with liquid pearl centres.

Next up I have this weeks two class cards, we made a multi-layered flower on this first card and I taught everyone how make a double looped bow.

And on this weeks second card, we used a pretty Marianne design basket filled with flowers.

And thats it for tonight, tomorrow is Stampin' Up and YeeTing has some beautiful cards planned so I will be back tomorrow to share those.

Framed

This first creation I have to share with you this evening is one of our tuesday afternoon projects.

It was Linda's turn to inspire us and she chose this cute little wooden shadow frame from one of the local cheapie shops, we all completed slightly different designs but we all worked along the same principle with sixteen little squares all approximately an inch square in size.

And a little bit closer, lots of teeny tiny embellishments.

Also I have a class card to share, this has been lurking in a file on my Mac for a few weeks, my filing is abysmal, I keep finding unshared crafting items, I think I am more or less caught up, you can catch a couple more of my class cards over on the 'Its a Creative World' blog tomorrow as it is my turn to share a little creativity.

The image was painted with Tim Holtz distress inks, papers are by We R Memory Keepers and the balloons were made with a Woodware punch, sentiment is Stampin' Up.

And that's all for tonight, I will be back tomorrow with my most recent pages from my circle journal.

Happy anniversary me old china

Today is mine and Neil's 20 year wedding anniversary

Happy anniversary sweetheart xxx

This is the card I made for him

The design is one taught in YeeTings last class at the shop, I loved the style and colours and knew Neil would too, I altered just a couple of details for it to suit the occasion and of course added a romantic verse inside.

This is the little pile of gifts I woke up to this morning after a long lie-in ( and yes the photo is bad, the lighting is poor and they are all piled on my duvet, very cosy but not conducive to a great photo !)

All these squishy little delights contained clothing from Fat Face, my fave brand of casual wear

This is far more than I was expecting as I had already received my official anniversary gift which was this little beauty

Yes I have been totally and utterly spoiled, Neil gave me my ipad early so I have already been playing with it for a few weeks and I certainly didn't expect anything else.

And then, just as I was about to get out of bed and start my day, he presented me with this gorgeous little box

A stunning pendant with my initial by Theo Fennell

I am so happy with all my lovely gifts but by far the best thing was realising that through many, many ups and downs, lots of life changes and upheavals, I have had my soul mate by my side.

Life has not always been easy

Sometimes life has been bloody hard

Sometimes we have not agreed

Sometimes we have cried

Sometimes we have struggled

Sometimes we have been lost

But ...

Always we have talked

Always we have shared

Always we have done things together

Always we have loved

As Neil wrote in my card, here is to the next 20 years !

I love you completely and utterly sweetheart,with the whole of my heart

Thankyou for always being there, my rock, my heart - my soulmate xxx

Birthdays and blessings

The card I have to share with you tonight is one I created for my mother-in-law, she celebrated her birthday yesterday and loves old images , so I pulled out the gorgeous vintage toppers Tracy recently sent me and based the card around this oh-so-sweet cherub.

I chose Melissa Frances papers and lots of flowers to finish the card off.

The verse is one downloaded from the internet.

Isn't that topper just the sweetest thing ! You can purchase this and many more from Tracy's online shop Cardmakers Delights HERE

Next up I have something a little out of the ordinary ( for me anyway)

I was recently asked by one of my friends if I could produce something as a gift for a bride and groom. Her daughter wanted to present the happy couple with the speech she made at their wedding.  My only constraints were to make it A4 in size and I was given a photo of the wedding as a guide for the colours.

The bride wore cadbury's purple and carried a bouquet of red roses ( and I must add looked like a model - totally stunning)

So I kept it very simple and classic and just added in the colours subtly with the flowers and the ribbon.

I hope they like it !

And now I am going to have another little play with those toppers as they are sat here on my desk just begging to be added to some more cards.

Flagging

As promised here are photos of todays class, a flag book/card

The title of this post is apt in more ways than one, my lovely tuesday morning ladies worked their little mitts off this morning with only the briefest of breaks for coffee and some yummy Italian cakes Joan brought in for her unbirthday - thanks Joan xxx

The front

The first three flags

The second page of flags

And the final three

I hope the photos help those people who didn't quite finish sticking all their embellishments in.

I appreciate a flag book was a task and a half for 15 people in two hours, thankyou everyone for your patience, here's hoping tomorrows two classes cope as well with all the little bits and bobs although with it being a slightly bigger class in the morning, dad and I did do a little extra prep. I promise to make next weeks class a little easier on you all xxx

Thankyou to Beryl for sharing her lovely two week project for our tuesday afternoon group, mine is still not quite finished so I will share photos as soon as I have all the photos and embellishments in place.

Naturally yours

The theme for our R.W.S April ATC swap was natural and the required colour for the month was Kraft

Here are the swaps I made

In detail - Embossed and painted Kraft cardstock for the basis, masked leafy stem in Old Olive Stampin' Up ink, butterfly is a hand cut and stamped Tim Holtz design and the flower has glass micro beads for it's centre. The quote is computer generated.

Here are all the swaps in just before the trading took place, some gorgeous designs don't you think ?

And..... drum roll please , this months winner

Catherine

I adored Catherine's solitary stamped tree, her book print hills and cotton lace border - stunning !

You can pay Catherine a visit HERE

All the swaps are now on their way to their lucky recipients and your little prize is in with your package Catherine.

As always the ATC swap is open to all, free to join and you can find all the details on the R.W.S site HERE

Next months theme is FLIGHT and the required colour is silver

Thankyou everyone who took part and shared their brilliant little works of art.

Home Sweet Home

It has been a strange month craft wise

I seem to have been super busy but not had much to show

I have also been featured HERE in their BEST of the WEB feature, thankyou David

Craft Corner is a fab site full of wonderful inspiration.

Here is something I can share.

This little birdhouse was inspired by a recent article in Craft Stamper magazine, although mine, as per usual, ended up looking nothing like the original project.

I have just shared details of this and extra photos as my DT post over at It's a Creative World today.

The other girls have also been busy creating some fabulous projects to inspire you, pop along and check out Doda's gorgeous pendant and Jayne's pretty layout, along with lots of other lovely ideas.

I also received a sweet email this week from Tracy Moss over at Cardmakers Delights asking me if I would like some free toppers to play with, they were in the post the next day and are patiently awaiting my attention, watch this space as I will be making lots of cards with the beautiful toppers this weekend.

Thankyou Tracy

Thanks also to Trish who brought me in the most beautiful plant today with the words 'happy saturday' - how sweet, thankyou xxx

So, on that note I will bid you a goodnight and a 'happy saturday' to all my lovely readers.

Getting back on track

I am still here

Sorry for my absence

To coin a phrase some of my US friends use

Life sucks

Well, sometimes it does

It has been doing here in chez Jackson at the moment

Not big time

Nothing serious

But just 'stuff'

So this is me pulling up my socks, dusting down and getting back on track

Anyway..........

Class cards up to date

These two are from about three weeks ago

And then we played with chalks and versamark for a subtle stamping technique for the next two cards

We also created backgrounds with the depth of field technique for these next two cards

And last week I demonstrated this pop-up style card

I am woefully behind in many of my year long projects but will be making a concerted effort to get back on track over the next fortnight

And that means blogging too

I have missed my little corner of the world wide web